Show caution when weighing up investment,farmers told

CASH-STRAPPED farmers have been advised to prioritise on investment in 2003, minimising the amount of money they tie up in high cost/low return expenditure such as machinery and buildings on the farm.

Teagasc chief dairy advisor Dermot McCarthy has warned the country’s dairy farmers that “any significant investment should be carefully evaluated” and they must prepare a cash flow analysis to see if the level of repayment being committed is feasible, if they are to avoid getting into difficulties as income tightens on the most profitable farming sector traditionally.

Investment in buildings and machinery must be minimised while cash is scarce on the farm and so as to avoid getting into difficulty with meeting repayments from investments which are not profit yielding.