Farmers will be able to rent their livestock under a new arrangement offered by a rural lender.
Heartland Building Society and its subsidiary PGG Wrightson Finance are basing their stock lease plan on a scheme run by Hawke's Bay livestock financing company Stock Co.
Heartland's rural head, Will Purvis, says farmers have about $20 billion tied up in livestock, which is a big drain on their working capital.
He says leasing gives farmers an alternative to the usual term loan for financing their livestock.
Under the arrangement Heartland will buy the livestock and lease the animals back to the farmer over a two- to five- year period, at the end of which the stock would generally be purchased by the farmer.
