Farmland prices are skyrocketing in Sask . How will that impact the province's family farmers?

Third-generation family farmer Darren Kress is struggling to expand his 2,000-hectare (roughly 5,000-acre) grain and cattle operation just outside of Odessa, Sask.

That's because farmland is becoming more expensive to buy or rent, he says.

"Since my brother and I have started farming, it has been about 12 years now, and right from the start, it was always tough, [but] the price of farmland has gone up every year since then," Kress said. 

"What you once thought was a high price, it only got higher."

This past year was especially tough for farmers looking to buy new land in Saskatchewan.

According to Farm Credit Canada's 2023 report, the average price of farmland in the province shot up 15.7 per cent last year, with the strongest uptick reported in the east-central Saskatchewan, where the increase was 20.8 per cent. 

Prices were highest for irrigated land in west-central and southwest Saskatchewan, averaging $6,500 per acre (or more than $16,000 per hectare), according to the report.

Kress said he isn't alone in feeling the impacts of the increased cost to run a family farm. 

In talking to other small farm owners, "the consensus is … land prices are high and we can't afford them," Kress said. 

He has mixed feelings about the value of farmland increasing at such a rapid rate. He learned how to farm from his father — who will benefit from selling his land while prices are high — but he thinks about whether those prices will deter his kids from continuing the family tradition. 

"Since we started farming, the land that my dad owns here has gone up 10 times the value since he bought it," Kress said. "Will we see it 10 times the value of that in another generation? I don't know."

According to Re/Max Canada's 2024 commercial real estate report, values are being driven to new heights as large farming corporations buy up more land.

But Ian Boxall, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, said there's confusion around corporate farms in the province. 

"I don't think we can dictate or put parameters around what the size of a farm looks like. I have neighbours that are family farms that farm 20,000 to 30,000 acres," Boxall said.