Two-thirds of all farmers surveyed in the Irish Farmers Journal Red C poll are in debt to at least one of eight creditors.

As expected, banks top the list, with 41% of all farmers owing money to them.

However, the survey shows that local merchants, contractors and vets are providing farmers with a significant amount of credit. Some 30% of farmers said they have unpaid bills with the local merchant, 27% with their contractor and 23% with their vet.

While those bills are to be expected in the course of normal farming business, the length of time some farmers owe money varies widely.

One in every three farmers said they or someone close to them has been affected by financial difficulty.

Almost half (49%) of all farmers who owe a debt to their local merchants settle the bill within 90 days.

However, one in five farmers lets the bill run to six months and another one in five does not pay for between six months and a year.

One in 10 of the farmers who have an outstanding bill with their local merchant have not paid after a year.

While half of all farmers pay their contractor within three months, almost one in five farmers have yet to pay the bill between six months and a year after the contractor drives out the gate.

A further 8% of farmers owe their contractor for more than a year.

Vets too carry a similar length of debt owed by farmers. Again, more than half (52%) of those who owe their vet money pay within 90 days.

However, 15% of farmers let the debt run to between three and six months, while 22% don’t settle the bill for between six months and a year. One in 10 farmers who owe their vet money say the bill is owed for more than a year.

More specialist dairy and tillage operators are in debt than their specialist beef and mixed grazing comrades.

The survey found that farmers tend to pay back other farmers the quickest, followed by vets and local merchants.

On the flip side, one-third of all farmers are running their farms debt-free.

Interestingly, this is not dictated by their farming type, with between 25% and 37% of farmers across all the different sectors reporting that they are debt-free.

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Full coverage of our Red C poll of 1,000 farmers