Farmers must plan how to manage their cashflow adequately over the next number of months. This was the key message issued from the agri outlook talk at the AIB Shed Talks session on Tuesday.

Pat O’Meara of AIB spoke of how farmers have been looking for financial support to aid cashflow: “We are finding that farmers are seeing the benefit of taking out term loans for infrastructural development no matter how big or small. They find it a more manageable solution than putting pressure on cashflow.”

Furthering the discussion, Pat McCormick from the ICMSA said: “Building fodder reserves is just as important as building cash reserves.”

He also stressed the importance of the Government pulling through and providing the low-interest loans that were promised for the second half of 2018.

“Farmers have merchant fees outstanding of 30-40 days at this stage and the availability of these loans would make a huge difference to easing the pressure on cashflow,” said McCormick.

Speaking about cashflow management, James Healy, president of Macra na Ferime, warned that cutting value out of your stock to manage forage deficits will affect cashflow in the future. He suggested that cutting quality out of the herd may not be the best management practice and culling needs to be thought about carefully. In response to this, Paul Nolan of Dawn meats said he can’t speak for quality being culled from herds but there is an increased kill in 2018 of up to 30% compared to last year’s figures.

Overall, Nolan feels that cows that are being culled are being culled for the right reasons. The final point of discussion revolved around the pressures farmers are experiencing because of cashflow shortage. Healy urged farmers to talk about the pressures they are experiencing with someone they trust and can rely on.

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