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Speaker 1: Jamie McKay Hosts of the Countries with us right now, Hey, Jamie,

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Speaker 1: Good evening, Heather. Now, why are farmers feeling a little

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Speaker 1: happier with their banks? Well, I don't know about feeling

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Speaker 1: a little happier. A bit less grumpy might be a

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Speaker 1: better description, Heather. This is the latest banking survey from

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Speaker 1: Federated farmers, so sixty percent of them are satisfied or

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Speaker 1: very satisfied with their bank. That's up from fifty three

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Speaker 1: percent in the November twenty twenty four survey, but a

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Speaker 1: long way, well shy of the eighty percent peak way

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Speaker 1: back in twenty seventeen. Eighteen percent of the farmers said

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Speaker 1: they were feeling undue bank pressure, down from twenty four

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Speaker 1: percent six months earlier. So I guess that's a positive number.

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Speaker 1: But Heather, some of the interesting things for me out

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Speaker 1: of this survey were the stats around farmers mortgages and debts.

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Speaker 1: Listen to this. Eighty four percent of farmers have a mortgage.

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Speaker 1: Probably not surprising that number. The surprising number might be

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Speaker 1: the average value of that mortgage four point seven billion.

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Speaker 1: And I was just doing a rough calculation back of

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Speaker 1: the envelope sort of stuff. If you had to service

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Speaker 1: with interest and principal repayments four point seven million dollars

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Speaker 1: at say seven and a half percent interest and principle,

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Speaker 1: that's three hundred and fifty grand just to service that alone.

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Speaker 1: Overdraft eighty eight percent of them. I got an overdraft

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Speaker 1: average overdraft three point fifty. The poor old arable farmers,

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Speaker 1: they're up over seven hundred, probably to do with all

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Speaker 1: the new gear they've got to buy. Here's the one

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Speaker 1: that's a bit of a jaw dropper. In my view.

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Speaker 1: Overdraft interest rates have dropped along with the OCR Obviously,

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Speaker 1: Rabobank offers the lowest overdraft rates at seven point three percent.

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Speaker 1: Now the B and Z remains the highest, at nine

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Speaker 1: points seven percent. I would call that a healthy margin, Heather.

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Speaker 1: In fact, I might even call it profiteering. Jamie, it's

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Speaker 1: good to talk to you. Thank you for running us

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Speaker 1: through it. We'll talk to you again on Thursday, Jammie McKay,

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Speaker 1: Host of the Country. For more from Heather Duplassy Alan Drove,

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks It B from four pm weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.