Farmers embrace online bidding
When the door slammed shut on New Zealand in March 2020 it also closed the gate to one of the viability fundamentals of the country’s livestock industry – stock auctions.
Farmer-owned NZ Farmers Livestock says its short-term finance package is the bridge many livestock farmers need to maintain and grow the vibrancy and profitability of their businesses.
NZ Farmers Livestock financial services manager Simon Williams says short term finance had been part of the company’s offering to existing clients for many years. “However, we’ve now made the facility available to all livestock farmers – regardless of who they trade stock with,” he says.
The change in reach for the finance package is, according to Williams, a response to the increasing turbulent and regulatory environment farmers operate in.
“The bureaucracy that often accompanies bank finance simply isn’t as responsive, flexible or fast as farmers need to maintain viability in today’s environment.
“There’s none of that bureaucracy in our package.
“We know farming. On any day, we are on farm working with farmers to help them maximise and maintain their farm’s profit. More and more farmers have been approaching our agents saying they need a more flexible, easy and fast way to access short term finance – and we’ve now done that.”
NZ Farmers Livestock finance is available to all livestock farmers across New Zealand.
“The average application for finance tends to sit between $50,000 and $150,000 but we have provided facilities of much more than that where the need was justified,” he says.
“The big difference between us and the banks is the speed of processing. On average, once we’ve received a farmer’s latest financial accounts, we can process an application in a couple of days.
“That speed and flexibility is hugely important because it enables farmers, two days out from a sale, to apply for the money they need to buy additional stock, get approval, attend the sale and bring the stock home.
“Our interest rate is higher than the banks but when you look over four to eight months, the additional cost of interest per animal is only one additional bid at the yards, so if farmers look at it on a dollar per head basis, it’s a sound proposition.
“The term of the loan is generally 12 months with an option to renew for two years.”
