Ravensdown Drought Relief Plan

Drought Relief Plan

13 April 2010

Ravensdown today announced an assistance plan to ease the productive and financial impact of the drought for affected farmers.

The Co-operative is offering interest free deferred payment terms backed with technical advice for all our farm input products until the end of May for shareholders in areas the government has declared drought-affected.

“The offer has proved extremely useful to Northland farmers and with the drought-affected area being expanded, we’ve expanded our relief plan to cover affected farmers in Waikato and Bay of Plenty,” says Regional Sales Manager Tom Dickie.

“Farmers still all have the same expenses for things like dry-off drench and regrassing but then there’s the costs they haven’t budgeted for such as supplementary feed so it’s useful to have interest free deferred terms so they can pay for it over several months.

“Farmers need to maintain a fertiliser programme to minimise the impacts of the drought and provide a faster recovery when the drought breaks.

“The relief plan will enable farmers to apply nitrogen and other fertilisers to encourage early pasture response to meet the increased feed demands in early spring, as well as deal with parasite and weed issues arising from the drought.

“Farmers can pick up the products before the end of May and payment won’t be due until October,” says Mr Dickie.

To be eligible farmers will have to be in an area the government has declared drought affected. Customers interested in the package should contact the Ravensdown Customer Centre or their account managers. Non-Ravensdown shareholders can take advantage of this offer, with some special conditions.

“During times of adverse weather conditions, Ravensdown takes steps to help farmers. We believe the assistance being offered now and in the past has the broad support of shareholders in the Co-operative because it reflects the co-operative nature of New Zealand farmers in the face of adversity,” Mr Dickie says.

Ravensdown has a long-term relationship with Federated Farmers and is working with them to help farmers through these times. The Federated Farmers 0800 drought line (0800 376 844) matches farmers with feed to sell, with those who need it.

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