Nutrien Financial helps farmers succeed with financing
Published: Nov 17, 2022
Nutrien Financial found solutions to help Walnutdale Family Farms, a dairy farm that milks 2,300 cows; farms 3,200 acres and was selected as the host farm for the 2022 World Dairy Expo Virtual Farm Tour, succeed in the face of a challenging 2022 growing season.
Combatting a volatile market
From supply chain issues and product availability farmers faced at the start of the year, to weather events and some of the fastest rising interest rates in decades – the market in 2022 is challenging the resilience farmers are so well-known for.
“This year challenged our growers’ budgets and the 2023 outlook is similar. The price of almost every aspect of farming increased. These operations have to be profitable in order to be sustainable. It is remarkable how our Retail teams have partnered with Nutrien Financial to find a new angle to help our customers save some money,” said Loren Hill, Vice President of Nutrien Financial.
Like many farmers across the country, the third-generation Walnutdale Family Farms dairy farm in Wayland, Michigan, was impacted by the instability of the grain market and its effects on feed cost at the beginning of the year. They were also anxious about product availability and pricing for crop inputs.
The Nutrien Financial team offers customers flexible payment options with interest rates that aren’t tied to prime, customized due dates and best-in-class payment terms. These financing options can greatly improve a grower’s financial outlook, which is exactly what happened with Walnutdale Family Farms. Austin Lettinga, the Controller of Walnutdale Family Farms, put it best: “We decided to use Nutrien Financial’s programs because it significantly lowered our interest expense, and we could invest the savings into crop inputs to benefit our crop.”
Pairing agronomic and financial plans
Nutrien Ag Solutions employs many crop consultants who can help farmers fully understand their agronomic plans and financial experts who can help pair that with the financial plan. One of our crop consultants helped lay out an agronomic plan for the year and worked with Nutrien Financial to help Walnutdale Family Farms inform and strengthen their farm’s financial plan.
The combined plans revealed that financing could be a great solution to relieve some of the budget pressures they were experiencing. Financing offered flexibility to hedge the price of inputs and gain working capital benefits, which provided added financial flexibility to offset price volatility and to help plan for contingencies.
Despite incredible volatility, farmers can still create some financial peace of mind by being judicious about their plans, reviewing the financing options and evolving those details to align with a sound agronomic plan. At Nutrien, we’re here to help them realize and evaluate all of the options. Walnutdale Family Farms’ story of success in 2022 is the perfect example of how providing better information to customers - both agronomic and economic - results in financial successes.