Omnigence Applies the Information Ratio to 18 Years of Farmland Returns

New research tests whether Canadian farmland’s excess returns reflect a persistent pattern or statistical noise.

CALGARY, AB, CANADA, September 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Omnigence Asset Management (“Omnigence”) recently published new research applying the Information Ratio — a statistical measure of excess return per unit of tracking error — to the 18-year quarterly return history of its Canadian farmland platform. The paper, The Information Ratio: Measuring Signal vs. Noise in Canadian Farmland Returns, examines 72 consecutive quarters from Q2 2008 through Q1 2026 and asks a question every allocator faces: is an observed excess return a real, repeatable pattern, or simply noise?

The Information Ratio is closely related to the t-statistic used in hypothesis testing, which allows an observed track record to be assessed for statistical significance rather than taken at face value. Applied across five benchmarks — Canadian inflation, treasury bills, Canadian bonds, the S&P/TSX 60, and the S&P 500 — the framework distinguishes where farmland’s excess return has been statistically persistent from where the available data cannot separate signal from benchmark volatility.

Against inflation and fixed income, the signal is unambiguous: annualized Information Ratios of 4.24 versus CPI (t = 18.0), 5.29 versus T-bills (t = 22.4), and 2.33 versus Canadian bonds (t = 9.9), each significant well beyond conventional thresholds. Over the full history, farmland outperformed inflation in 70 of 72 quarters and T-bills in all 72, and the reported quarterly series contains no negative quarters.

The paper is explicit that appraisal-based valuations can understate an asset’s true volatility, and it stress-tests its own conclusions accordingly. Alongside the reported figures it presents a desmoothed series and an independent cross-check using Farm Credit Canada transaction data; the two methods converge on an underlying volatility of roughly 3.5% to 5.1%. Under every volatility assumption tested, the risk-adjusted results remain strong — a Sharpe ratio ranging from 2.86 (using transaction-based volatility) to 6.32 (as reported). Because no quarterly return fell below a 6% annualized hurdle over the full period, the Sortino ratio is undefined under its conventional formulation.

“Every allocator has looked at a track record and wondered whether it’s skill, structure, or just luck,” said Stephen Johnston, a director of Omnigence and lead author of the paper. “The Information Ratio lets you put that question on a statistical footing. When we ran farmland against inflation, cash, and bonds over eighteen years, the excess return clears the significance bar by a wide margin — it looks like a persistent pattern, not a fluke.”

“The equity result is just as interesting, and we were careful not to oversell it,” Johnston added. “Against volatile public indices the numbers aren’t statistically significant, but that’s because the benchmark is noisy, and farmland barely correlates with it. That near-zero correlation is precisely the point: farmland isn’t an equity replacement, it’s an independent return stream. And we tested our own numbers against their weakest assumption, appraisal smoothing, rather than around it.”

The paper was co-authored by Omnigence directors Matt Barr and Barclay Laughland. Omnigence manages the strategy through Veripath, its farmland platform.

AVAILABILITY
The research paper is available on request from Omnigence Asset Management.

About Veripath
Veripath is a partner fund of Omnigence Asset Management, a $1 billion alternative investment platform. Veripath invests in Canadian farmland and manages a portfolio of more than 140,000 acres of row-crop farmland across Canada. Its investment strategy is focused on farmland’s potential to provide long-term value, portfolio diversification, inflation protection and exposure to growing global demand for food, feed, fuel and water.

About Omnigence
Omnigence is a Canadian alternative investment platform focused on farmland, operational private equity, and secondaries with partner funds managing over $1.2 billion. The firm targets fragmented, unfinancialized investment theses where scale, operational complexity, or size constraints limit participation from larger participants and therefore value is more compelling.

DISCLAIMER:
This document is for information only and is not intended to provide the basis of any credit or other evaluation, and does not constitute, nor should it be construed as, an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy securities of Omnigence or any other entity, nor shall any part of this document form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract or investment decision in relation to any securities. This document may contain forward-looking information and statements (collectively, “forward-looking information”) within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is provided for the purpose of providing information about the current expectations and plans of management of Omnigence relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. More particularly and without limitation, this document contains forward-looking information relating to Omnigence’s investment objectives and strategies, including, but not limited to, potential acquisition targets and strategies employed to improve acquired businesses post-acquisition. Forward-looking information is based upon a number of assumptions and involves a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Omnigence’s control, which would cause actual results or events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. Although management believes that expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information since no assurance can be given that such information will prove to be accurate. Omnigence do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws. There is no guarantee of performance, and past or projected performance is not indicative of future results. This document and the publication referred to herein may contain statistical data, market research and industry forecasts that were obtained from government or other industry publications and reports or are based on estimates derived from such publications and reports. Government and industry publications and reports generally indicate that they have obtained their information from sources believed to be reliable, but do not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of their information. While Omnigence believes this data to be reliable, market and industry data is subject to variations and cannot be verified with complete certainty due to limits on the availability and reliability of raw data, the voluntary nature of the data gathering process and other limitations and uncertainties inherent in any statistical survey. Omnigence have not independently verified any of the data from independent third party sources referred to in this document and the publication referred to herein or ascertained the underlying assumptions relied upon by such sources.

Matt Barr
Omnigence Asset Management
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