Ulster Bank offers farmers practical solutions to deal with the stresses and strains and everyday practicalities of modern day farming. They support investments in land purchases, grassland management, genetics and infrastructure to facilitate profitable expansion and growth.

One of the ways Ulster Bank helps Irish dairy farmers is through the provision of loans tailored to help dairy farmers expand and improve grazing conditions. Examples of these are their Dairy Farm Expansion Loan is available to both new and existing farmers who are planning to start or expand their dairy farm business. One of the main features of this loan is that it has an interest-only option for the first six to twenty four months (dependent on loan purpose).

They also offer a Pasture loan to both new and existing farmers who are planning to implement improved grassland management practices such as grazing infrastructure, drainage, reseeding, and improving soil fertility. This loan includes maximum amount of €60,000 per customer and a repayment schedule to match your farm cash-flow.

As well as offering financial support for farmers Ulster Bank also invests in education and training with a recent example of this being their recent partnership Teagasc, to publish the ‘Dairy Farm Infrastructure Handbook’ for the 2017 Moorepark Open Day.

Ulster Bank has put a lot of focus ensuring its staff are up to speed on all agricultural matters. This is evidenced by the fact that it put 34 of its staff through a twelve month training programme, which, included formal training modules and on-the-farm, practical work to bring them up to speed on agri matters and ensure they are best placed to provide meaningful help to farmers and other agri-businesses. This initiative has been “a huge success “according to Ulster Banks Ailish Byrne, Senior Agricultural Manager with Ulster Bank. It allowed farmers to form deeper connections with their managers and also the programme was adopted by the Institute of Banks and is now a module in their programme”. Ailish also added that Ireland continues to to be “supportive of the sector, from corporate customer right down to the individual farmer.