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Speaker 1: Joining us is Jamie mckaye, Host of the Country Jamie.

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Speaker 1: Good evening to you, Hie to chat. Great to have

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Speaker 1: you on. And farmers are feeling good. Confidence is up,

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Speaker 1: in fact, highest since mid twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't know whether it's a coincidence or not, Ryan,

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Speaker 2: the guess who was in power in mid twenty seventeen,

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Speaker 2: So it's a bit of a tale of the tape.

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Speaker 2: Really like farmer confidence, it's taken a bit of a battering.

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Speaker 2: Obviously COVID happened during labor six year in power, but

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Speaker 2: it'll be fair to say that they didn't really have

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Speaker 2: the back of farmers. So this is the latest Rabobank

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Speaker 2: rural confidence survey, best since mid twenty seventeen. Reasons for

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Speaker 2: optimism higher commodity prices and they've even got higher. Ryan,

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Speaker 2: By the way, since this survey has been completed, we've

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Speaker 2: had that ten dollars announcement from Fonterra and obviously falling

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Speaker 2: interest rates, so the other big one, but they're still

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Speaker 2: the major concern in terms of farmer confidence. Would be

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Speaker 2: the same for anyone in business or owning a house.

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Speaker 2: I guess is rising input costs, No surprise. When it

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Speaker 2: came to a differing farming sectors, it was the dairy

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Speaker 2: farmers who were the most confident. And why wouldn't you

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Speaker 2: be with ten dollars milk price? Sheep farmers, the red

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Speaker 2: meat farmers are more confident because they're coming off a

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Speaker 2: real low water culture perhaps other than key we fruit

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Speaker 2: just sort of treading water at the moment. And the

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Speaker 2: other positive to come out of this unless you're in

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Speaker 2: the market to buy a farm. Of courses that farmers

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Speaker 2: are expecting land values to rise in the coming year.

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Speaker 2: And I bet that's is pretty much what a lot

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Speaker 2: of homeowners are thinking as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, a bit of confidence there. Farmers not so happy

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Speaker 1: with their banks though.

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Speaker 2: No, what did Nikola Willis call it a cozy pillow fight? Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so this is Federated farmers who are on the warpath.

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Speaker 2: And my understanding, Ryan, and you heard it first on

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Speaker 2: your High Rating show, there is some announcement from Federated

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Speaker 2: Farmers on this one tomorrow. They've come out today. They've

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Speaker 2: surveyed more than six hundred farmers. Only fifty three percent

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Speaker 2: of respondents are currently satisfied with their banking relationship. That's

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Speaker 2: a huge drop from the eighty percent in twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 2: Sheer milkers are the most concerned. They've got more at

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Speaker 2: risk and they've got less security. Thirty five percent of

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Speaker 2: them are feeling undue pressure from their bank. Alarmingly, almost

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Speaker 2: a quarter of farmers feel their bank doesn't allow them

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Speaker 2: to structure their debt efficiently, ie making them use overdraft

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Speaker 2: facilities at very high in punitive rates to farm capital projects.

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Speaker 2: And Richard McIntyre from Federated Farmers is saying this doesn't

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Speaker 2: just drive up interest rates for farmers and costs for farmers,

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Speaker 2: it also unjustifiably drives up the profit for the banks. Now,

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Speaker 2: it's not all bad news. If you're banking with Rabobank,

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Speaker 2: well you're probably doing okay, well better than the average bear.

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Speaker 2: Because I've got twenty three percent of the rural market.

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Speaker 2: They've slowly climbed. They do nothing else but finance rural

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Speaker 2: and farming. Are Their satisfaction rates are at seventy point

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Speaker 2: one percent and that's well ahead of the four the

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Speaker 2: Gussie banks.

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Speaker 1: Well that says at all, doesn't it. Jamie, Thank you

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Speaker 1: very much for that. Jamie McKay hosted the Country with.

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Speaker 2: Us for more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live

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Speaker 2: to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or

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