Dr. Ailish Byrne:

As to what we look for, we have learned lessons from the pig sector and how it manages volatility. If its farmers look for credit from Ulster Bank, they will always ask how much that is in cent per kilogramme of deadweight. Dairy farmers could start asking us how much the money we loaned them would cost them in cent per litre of milk. That is a key figure that we factor in rather than debt per cow, per acre or per hectare. It depends on the life cycle of that individual, his or her level of drawings from the family farm business and whether the family has other income sources.