IFA advice: don't gamble with the farm

USING arms as collateral to borrow for off-farm investment has got the thumbs-down from the Irish Farmers Association.

It's a route you may regret later, IFA's new spokesman on farm business told farmers at a Limerick IFA meeting.

Co Meath farmer Eddie Downey, National Chairman of the IFA Farm Business Services and Inputs Committee, described the property market as "a house of cards waiting to collapse at the first crack", when he cautioned farmers against using their farms as security.