Today, a farm needs to gross about $250,000 to sustain a $60,000 income, enough to support a family of four without the need of off-farm income, according to a study by the Guelph-based Institute for Agri-food Policy Innovation.

Here’s how today’s farms stack up:
About 63 per cent of Ontario farms gross less than $100,000. Another 28 per cent of farms gross between $100,000 and $500,000 a year, while almost 9 per cent of farms earn more than $500,000 a year.

Things have changed. Compare with the census records of 1961. Back in those days of the black and white television and long-playing records, 66 per cent of farms were in the middle category in real dollar terms, while only 4 per cent of farms were in the top earning category. Small farms made up only 30 per cent of all Ontario farms.

Two points to keep in mind: First, to earn $500,000 today, a farm would have to gross $38,000 in 1961. Second, there were 120,000 farms in 1961, compared to the about 50,000 farms in Ontario today.