‘Downright disturbing’: Over 40,000 tonnes of beef imported into Ireland<\/a><\/p>\nOne such option is refinancing capital investments already made over the last three years, and which had been originally funded by the farmers themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, a farmer who built a shed two years ago using their own money may now be able to draw down finance against that investment. Measures like that can provide badly needed \u2018breathing space\u2019 for farmers who are genuinely caught for cash at the present,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The key point here, stressed Mr O\u2019Brien, is the need for farmers to raise this option with their banks before the option might be required.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave the discussion even if you don\u2019t think you\u2019ll need it. There\u2019s no harm in having that safety net \u2018ready to go\u2019 if needs be. One of the biggest issues for farmers is protecting their credit rating and the banks themselves acknowledge that farmers will go to extraordinary lengths to meet repayments, often putting themselves under severe financial pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cA simple conversation with the bank may reduce this pressure. And even if they went to \u2018Interest only\u2019 repayment options, that might affect a farmer\u2019s credit rating and obviously should be avoided if possible \u2013 but it\u2019s not the end of the financial world either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Brien said they are seeing a cashflow deficit coming our way this year due to reduced output prices, increased input costs and a very long winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe positives of last year are being \u2018eaten up\u2019 and farmers are worried that they will find themselves stretched for cash. So ICMSA is advising our members to talk to their banks about their cashflow requirements and make sure they have some contingency in place, in the event of cash becoming tight.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s also the reality that many farmers will face significant tax bills in the months ahead, while also trying to cope with high input costs and low milk prices. That\u2019s going to be a challenge, but it can be navigated where the banks are approached, options examined and plans put in place,\u201d said Mr O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n
The \u2018bottom line\u2019 is that repayments have to be manageable, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no point in continuing crushing repayments in a time of low prices and high costs if there are other options available. The banks have told us that they are available and that if farmers \u2018reach out\u2019 that they\u2019re happy to work through those options with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf farmers need room, time and options during a very challenging period \u2013 such as we are going through now \u2013 then the banks will give them that. We urge farmers to think about it hard and reach out to see what their options are if they see insurmountable cashflow problems coming,\u201d concluded Mr O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n
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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHAIR of ICMSA\u2019s Farm Business Committee, Pat O\u2019Brien, has advised farmers to \u201chonestly assess\u201d their current financial position…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,2177,27127,61,60],"class_list":["post-465293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-county-limerick","tag-farming","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}