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Abstract

Hobby farms have represented a significant share of census-farms for many decades. Most operators of hobby farms treat the farm as a "hobby" -- there is no intention of making money. However, some hobby farms are profitable. The purpose of this paper is to identify the proportion of farms in Canada which are hobby farms and to identify the characteristics of the hobby farms that make money. According to 1991 Census of Agriculture data, there were 50,991 census-farms in which the main operator reported 190 days or more of off-farm work and whose farm did not employ any year round paid labour. Part-time or "hobby" farmers are an integral part of the agriculture population. Among the hobby farmers in Canada 40% are reporting positive net cash farm income. Only 9% of these hobby farmers are reporting net cash farm income of greater than $10,000. Ontario and BC's farm population consists of the highest proportion of hobby farms (18% and 16% respectively). Hobby farming is not a new phenomenon in Canada and hobby farmers do not appear to be a dying group. It is obvious that there is much more to this pursuit than making a profit.

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