Improved milk prices over the past two years have allowed dairy farmers in NI to make significant progress with repaying debt, Danske Bank’s head of agribusiness Rodney Brown has said.

At a Guild of Agricultural Journalists event in Belfast last week, Brown said that some dairy farmers have been able to clear all debts.

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“There are still a few that struggle, but those numbers are in their tens rather than anything else,” he said. “If fundamentally it’s a good business and its properly managed, we will work with them on restructuring. If the fundamentals of the business aren’t right, tinkering around the edges will not address the issues.”

Extended overdrafts and interest-only loan repayments were taken out by some dairy farmers to ease cashflow pressures when milk prices bottomed out during 2015/2016.

Most recent figures from DAERA show that the average debt on borrowed dairy farms in NI stood at £109,515 in 2016/2017.

“We would expect the trend to be definitely down this year. The expectation is that debt will be further reduced as we go forward,” Brown maintained.

During his presentation, Brown said that post-Brexit agricultural policy in NI should move away from the existing CAP model and focus on improving farm productivity.

He also maintained that a significant change in farm support payments after Brexit would not necessarily lead to a reduction in land prices if there is an adequate phase-in period: “We have not always seen the price of land held up by farmers wanting to invest, there are other people who want to invest in land as well.”