Statistics show the number of farms in the Rural Municipality of Hanover has been decreasing steadily over the past twenty years.

Stats from the 1996 Census showed there were 640 farms in Hanover. Twenty years later, that number has fallen to 375. But Reeve Stan Toews says though there are fewer farms, the number of acres farmed has been steadily increasing in recent years. In 2016, it reached 183,568.

When it comes to land, the average acre in Hanover in 2016 was valued at $3,995. That is up from $3,580 in the 2011 Census.

In 2016, Hanover had 12.7 percent of the province's dairy cattle population, 1 percent of beef cattle, 7.7 percent of pigs, 30.9 percent of sheep and lambs, 28.2 percent of poultry, 1.7 percent of horses, 3.2 percent of goats and 7.7 percent of bees.

When comparing 2011 to 2016, there is a noticeable reduction in dairy farms and cows milked, beef farms and cows pastured, hog farms and number of hogs in production in Hanover. This fact has prompted Hanover Council to request its Planning Department to review with the help of Manitoba Agriculture its current phosphorus statistics in relation to the manure application.

Having said that, Hanover has the second highest number of hogs of any municipality in the province and the most layer and broiler chickens.

And finally, when it comes to total gross farm income receipts in the province, Hanover is in third place of any municipality following the 2016 Census. Hanover's total is $264 million, compared to $272 million in the RM of La Broquerie and $388 million in the RM of Tache. Hanover slipped to third after being tops on that list five years earlier.