AI Analysis: Farm product prices, crops and livestock

Executive Summary

Statistics Canada's Farm Product Prices dataset (Table 32100077) tracks 46 agricultural commodities across 10 Canadian provinces over 46 years of monthly data (1980–2026), encompassing 116,839 records and 278 unique time series. Prices have risen more than fourfold over the period — from an average of ~$76.54 to ~$324.20 — with the most recent average of $323.87 near an all-time high, signaling sustained long-term upward momentum. The distribution is right-skewed, driven by high-value livestock and specialty commodities, while overall data quality is strong with only 6.8% missing values.

Key Findings

• The dataset spans 553 monthly time periods from January 1980 to January 2026, covering 116,839 records across 46 farm products and 10 Canadian provinces.
• Average farm product prices have increased more than 4x over the 46-year period, rising from approximately $76.54 to a near-record high of $324.20, with the latest reading at $323.87.
• Price distributions are right-skewed, with an overall median of $105.33 sitting well below the mean of $152.74, indicating that a small number of high-value commodities pull the average upward.
• Dollars per kilolitre commands the highest typical prices (median $726.50, max $1,111.11), while dollars per dozen — used for eggs — has the tightest and lowest range ($0.72–$2.93, median $1.28).
• Livestock categories (calves for feeding, calves for slaughter, and cattle for feeding) dominate the top 6 most data-rich products and exhibit the greatest price volatility in recent years.
• A statistical outlier analysis identified 1,661 anomalous data points (1.5% of 108,933 records, using |Z-score| > 3), spread across multiple products and regions, likely reflecting historical price shocks such as droughts or supply chain disruptions.
• Data completeness is strong for a 46-year historical dataset, with only 6.8% missing values (7,906 records), and the dataset is updated monthly with the latest refresh as of March 10, 2026.