Times can be tough for farmers, but luckily PGG Wrightson has an innovative solution, called Go-Stock, to help them free up capital.

Jamie Molloy, PGG Wrightson’s National Go-Stock Manager, said the service was established in 2016.

PGG Wrightson buys and owns the livestock, and farmers get the trading margin minus fees and selling costs when the stock is sold, he explained to The Country’s Jamie Mackay.

“The stock sits on our balance sheet and not the farmer’s so that’s the difference.”

Molloy said the platform was to be used for trading stock only, not capital stock.

Go-stock had been successful so far, he said.

“It’s been a really good cashflow enabler for those farmers, especially the younger farmers [who] have really taken it on board.”

Molloy said 2024 was a big year for Go-Stock.

“This year we’ll hit a milestone of three million lambs through the product and nearly 450,000 head of cattle.

“So it’s been really successful from starting from nothing.”

Go-Stock was available for beef, dairy, lambs and deer, each with a maximum contract length, Molloy explained.

“It’s 12 months for cattle and 300 days for lamb and then 18 months for dairy.”

Go-stock’s maximum contract length for deer is 12 months.

The whole process was pretty simple, he said.

“It’s for trading stock, so - in and out basically - within a 12-month, 18-month period.”

Molloy said overall, Go-stock was also easy to use without too many hoops to jump through.

“It’s very simple. It’s not a finance product as such because it’s on our books – we’re not giving out money – we’re buying the stock and we own it.”

He said the whole process involved “simple documentation” and PGG Wrightson could turn around an application in 12 to 24 hours.

“There are no fishhooks in it and that’s what I think farmers really appreciate about it.”

Farmers can find out more about Go-Stock here.

Also in today’s interview: Molloy updated Mackay on the lamb market and the conditions in Hawke’s Bay where he is based.