It's hard to put a monetary value on perennial forage crops once they have been harvested and used on the same farm, because no money has changed hands. It's also true that the Conseil québécois des plantes fourragères feels that not enough research is being done on this topic. Not enough attention is being paid to it to truly ensure the entire industry recognizes the potential of forage crops, because we aren't gathering enough data on the subject.
Often, a farming operation includes everything—in other words, the fields, the barn, and all other aspects of the business are accounted for in the same books. How could we then truly assign forage crops the fair value they represent?
The closest I can get you to that value is by telling you that half of the hectares under production in Quebec, for example—about 30% in Canada—are used to grow perennial forage crops for the beef and dairy industries. That’s why I had some figures on what the dairy and meat industries represent in Quebec.
Once forage crops are processed, what do they contribute to the economy? Fundamentally, they created these industries; in other words, we start with land where there is nothing and we grow something, which is ultimately processed by the rest of the industry.