Lakeland Dairies has today, Tuesday, February 18, announced that it has partnered with over a dozen equipment manufacturers and Finance Ireland to roll out a new loan scheme that aims to help farmers invest in on-farm equipment.
Finance Ireland will use funds from the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) to support the scheme.
The FundEquip scheme allows Lakeland Dairies suppliers to make investments in machinery and equipment on their farms providing loans at very competitive interest rates over a three-year or five-year term.
- Bulk tanks and cooling equipment;
- Feed bins;
- Generators;
- Milk recording equipment;
- Solar panels;
- Automatic calf feeders;
- Auto ID / heat detection units;
- Plus other essential items.
Loan amounts under FundEquip range from €3,000 to €75,000 with funding options of between three and five years at interest rates of 3.9% for three-year terms and 4.5% for five-year terms.
In order to manage cash-flow effectively, repayments are deducted from a farmer’s milk cheque only between April and November.
Applicants must have a milk supply agreement and have been supplying Lakeland Dairies for longer than 12 months.
Commenting on the FundEquip scheme, Lakeland Dairies’ chairman, Alo Duffy, said: “We are delighted to have partnered with Finance Ireland, the SBCI as well as many of the country’s leading farm-equipment suppliers to bring the FundEquip scheme to the Lakeland Dairies farm families.
As dairy farmers continue to grow their enterprises, this can require new equipment to cater for ongoing expansion and to ease the overall workload on the farm.
“The FundEquip scheme provides financing for important farm equipment such as bulk tanks, generators, milk cooling equipment, solar panels, automatic calf feeders and feed bins among other items at competitive interest rates.
“The flexible and tailored repayment structure over three or five years allows for sustainable investment on farms while being able to manage cash-flow over the duration of the loan,” Duffy concluded.
Billy Kane, chief executive of Finance Ireland, said: “We are delighted to work with Lakelands on the one hand and SBCI on the other to continue to bring innovative financial solutions to Irish farmers.
We have a strong commitment to the agriculture sector having already pioneered the roll out of Milkflex for Lakeland suppliers.
“We see this initiative scheme as a further demonstration of our confidence in the future of Irish agriculture.”
Lakeland Dairies suppliers in the Republic of Ireland received information on the FundEquip scheme in recent days.
Any supplier who did not receive an information booklet or who wants to learn more about FundEquip can contact Lakeland Dairies member relations on: 1890-474720; or Finance Ireland on: 01-639-1370.