Monette Farms and farm growth

May 17, 2026

Key points from this story:

• Canadian farms getting larger
• Trend began after the First World War
• Farmers chase efficiencies with bigger machinery
• Rail closures prompted longer hauls
• Monette Farms granted CCAA protection
• Monette has access to $50 million

This is a surprise to absolutely no one, as the trend of rural depopulation and growing farm size started basically coming out of the first great war, was exhilarated by the 'Dirty Thirties' and have continued generally unabated. Certainly there have been times the farm growth has slowed, but it just keeps on rolling.

There have been reasons for it - largely though the reason is that farmers are chasing efficiencies. They hope they can squeeze another one or two quarter sections of work out of existing machinery, then when replacing that 'iron' they buy bigger, and the wheels turn again in the search for more land.

And of course if a farmer wants to retire, neighbours are going to look to add the acres because if they don't they will be gone and when expansion is considered it will be only possible acquiring land further away. The support systems have pushed larger too.

Rail line abandonment years ago led to dozens of rural elevator closures. Farmers were forced to longer hauls to market grain, that necessitated larger trucks to be viable which in turn made more land make greater sense.

For the most part bigger farms have not been an issue - although there are those concerned with ownership. Dollars from outside a province, or especially outside the country, are frowned upon when buying farmland - although most land is more or less owned by banks headquartered outside the Prairies so the difference seems a tad illusionary.

Then there are the big farms wrecks, and they send shudders of concern through the farm sector. Today the focus is on the problems facing mega operation Monette Farms.

The farm was recently granted an extended stay of proceedings under Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act protection. In terms of big corporations such protection is not particularly unusual as it is a stop-gap measure of sorts to allow the company some time to try to restructure before the doors close.

But what is unusual is the sheer scale of Monette Farms, which thanks to the order will have access to another $50 million for spring seeding and other costs. That is a massive amount of operating money for a single season, and shows just how big the operation has managed to grow.

Now it will no doubt take lawyers and accountants potentially years to determine why the farm is teetering failure today, but it won't be as simple as 'they grew too big'. The barriers to success are rarely singular in nature, and less so given the typical issues of weather, bugs, trade wars and food trends which impact farming.

Of course in this case a number of farm-related businesses in rural areas might topple too if bills are not paid, and the domino effect is unsettling to consider.

But in the end Monette Farms whether it thrives or dies will not alter the decades old trend of ever larger farms.