Milk Sold Off Farms and Cash Receipts from the Sale of Milk

Detailed information for September 2015

Status:

Active

Frequency:

Monthly

Record number:

3432

The purpose of this survey is to produce monthly statistics on off-farm sales of milk and cream.

Data release - November 25, 2015

Description

This survey collects monthly administrative data from provincial milk marketing agencies and provincial departments of agriculture in Canada related to off-farm sales of milk and cream. The data are used by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Dairy Commission, libraries, provincial governments and the dairy farmers of Canada to assist in the development, administration and evaluation of dairy policies. Numerous government and non-government organizations are involved in the administration of the dairy sector and require detailed information particularly because this sector operates within a supply-management framework that manages farm-level production, imports, exports and prices.

Reference period: Month

Collection period: Ten days following the reference period

Subjects

  • Agriculture and food (formerly Agriculture)
  • Farm financial statistics
  • Livestock and aquaculture

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The universe of all Canadian producers of milk and cream and the target population consists of all dairies in Canada that purchase milk or cream from agricultural producers. The data are obtained indirectly through administrative sources.

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.

Data are collected for all units of the target population, therefore, no sampling is done.

Data sources

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are extracted from administrative files.

Administrative data are compiled by various provincial agencies (depending on the province) as a summary output related to administering the production, marketing and pricing of milk at the farm and sector levels. Information provided in various spreadsheet style formats includes sales of milk for fluid purposes, sales of milk for industrial purposes and sales of farm separated cream for industrial purposes. Also included are payments made to farmers for that milk.

Telephone follow-up procedures ensure a high rate of return during data collection.

Error detection

Provincial reports and totals are scrutinized to ensure that they are consistent with previous periods and industry trends.

Imputation

Missing reports are manually imputed based on previous reports, historical averages or ratios. This is required if the current month's data are not available and the data are usually updated with completed questionnaires the following month.

Estimation

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Quality evaluation

The survey results are evaluated through comparisons to previous estimates and other sources when available. Biological factors are used as a guide when evaluating the data or comparing to other data sets.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

For each quarterly release, the previous periods' data are revised if necessary. The revisions can be necessary when revisions are done to survey or administrative data.

Data accuracy

This information is considered of high quality. Provincial milk marketing boards purchase all milk produced within a province and make payment to producers. Data provided by the boards are also subject to provincial department audits and are monitored by the Canadian Dairy Commission. Periodic visits to plants are carried out by provincial inspectors to ensure that all production is reported. With these checks, the accuracy of these statistics is deemed high.

The data accuracy of this survey is high as the universe is stable, the closely scrutinized source data have payment and quota implications and because the response rate is normally 100%.

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