There is one thing we have learned since banks were de-regulated and allowed to bleed borrowers dry. They maximise their profits into billions and their executive pays into millions of dollars a month. Another is that in the process they neither know nor care about the vagaries of farming. That attitude results in loans that are not specifically suited to farming. Right now many farm debts are parked in repayment holidays. But a repayment holiday is not an interest holiday, so the debt is steadily climbing and interest will be charged on an increasing debt. We don’t talk about interest rates in the same way that we talk about calving rates or lambing percentages. Yet that is what loans do. They reproduce debt. When there is a fire, flood or drought there may be a bit of a repayment holiday for the farmer to catch up. But the debt keeps dropping more debt all over the mortgaged paddocks. The good old debt is busy reproducing itself a little bit every day. We know that if we don’t clear out cull stock we will pretty soon not have the yards to hold them or the paddocks to feed them. It’s the same with the farm debt. Every day it reproduces, reproduces and if we don’t cull some of that debt it will just become too big to handle. We see the calves and lambs, but debt is different. It is invisible to most farmers coping with floods. They are too busy dealing with the flood! Trouble is that when we cull stock we get money into our bank account, but when we cull surplus debt it costs us money to pay it off. So how on Earth are we farmers supposed to cope with all this debt reproducing itself on our place while we try to make a quid in some pretty ferocious seasons with more money going out than coming in? We get in touch with our nearest Rural Financial Counsellor and arrange a meeting. These are the first port of call for financial assistance. They will know what relief is going and what needs to be done to access it. Apply for every bit of assistance you can. Initially put it into a separate bank account to where you have your mortgage. Banks holding mortgages sometimes seize a farmers cashflow without notice, making it impossible to pay for farm supplies, buy feed or fuel. In the end that money put away from the flood relief program may enable some of the debt to be reduced or at least interest to be paid. There may also be merit in checking to see what other bank finance might be available if your current bank asked for its money back. It is always good to be prepared. GBAC has a little Loan App that can get banks coming to the farmers competing with each other for the new business. It also happens that banks who do want their money back if the debt is not performing properly, will sometimes come to a very favourable arrangement if they have been guilty along the way of acting inappropriately. It is amazing how many banks have acted inappropriately towards their farm clients and how much they sometimes write off. GBAC Farm Debt Solutions has specialised in this type of favourable solution for 30+ years. I've been doing this all around Australia for a good long while. Feel free to phone me on 0428 417 496 for a free chat if you think it may be helpful. Greg