What carrying a season actually costs.
A seasonal facility charges on what is drawn rather than on the limit, so the cost depends on how deep the drawdown goes and how many months it stays there.
Last reviewed 8 September 2026
Indicative interest cost
Weekly
$242/week
Indicative only. Not a quote or offer of credit. Actual rates, fees, and repayments depend on the business profile and the lender's decision.
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What this tool calculates
An interest cost, not a repayment.
A seasonal facility has no repayment schedule. It is drawn as costs are incurred and repaid when the season’s income arrives, so the honest output is the interest cost of carrying an average drawn balance rather than a repayment figure that would not exist. Publishing a repayment for a facility that never amortises would be a figure misdescribing the product.
Two different numbers
The average sets the cost and the peak sets the limit.
The average drawn balance across a season determines what the facility costs, and it is the input here. The peak determines what the limit has to be, and it is ordinarily a long way above the average, particularly in sectors paid in a small number of events.
Both are in the bank statements. Twelve monthly closing balances give the average directly, and the lowest month gives the peak drawdown. A farm that knows both is asking a lender for a limit sized on the right number and budgeting on the right one too.
Sizing a facility on the average is the most common and most consequential error in seasonal finance, because it leaves the business short at precisely the point where nothing can be done about it.
By sector
How deep the drawdown tends to go.
General shapes rather than benchmarks. The point is the ordering, and every business should take its own figures from its own statements.
| Sector | Income pattern | Drawdown shape |
|---|---|---|
| Dairy | Monthly | Moderate, partly offset each month |
| Sheep and beef | A few sale events | Deep, long accumulations |
| Horticulture | After harvest, in stages | Deep, plus development debt |
| Arable | Once, after harvest | Deepest per hectare |
| Apiculture | After extraction and sale | Long, and volatile |
Indicative shapes only. Not benchmarks, and not a substitute for a business’s own figures.
What is not modelled
Three things a seasonal facility does that this does not show.
The shape of the drawdown is the first. A facility that reaches its peak in one month and clears the next carries a very different risk from one sitting near its limit for a quarter, and both can produce the same average balance and the same interest figure.
The line fee is the second. It applies to the limit rather than the balance and is charged whether or not the facility is used, so a large limit held for tolerance costs something every year even in a season it is barely drawn.
The review is the third and least numerical. A facility is available until a lender decides otherwise, and a seasonal limit is reviewed after the season rather than before it. What that means in practice is covered on the seasonal finance page rather than here.
What the tool does
The arithmetic behind the figures, and what it leaves out.
In its scheduled mode the calculator applies the standard amortising formula, spreading an amount and its interest evenly across the term and converting the monthly result to a weekly one. In its revolving mode it calculates the interest cost of an average drawn balance instead, which is the honest output for a seasonal facility that never amortises.
It excludes every fee. Establishment and line fees, review charges, valuation and legal costs, and any security disbursements are all real and none of them is here, because they vary by lender in ways no formula can anticipate. On a rural facility the valuation and legal costs in the first year can be substantial.
It also excludes seasonal repayment structures, which are common in rural lending and which change the shape of a schedule without changing its total by much. And it excludes every tax effect, which on a farm is a larger omission than it would be elsewhere. It is a way of seeing how amount, rate and term interact before a conversation with a lender, and it is not a quote, an application or an offer of credit. Nothing entered here is transmitted anywhere.
References
Sources
- Reserve Bank of New Zealand, agricultural lending statistics
Context for New Zealand rural lending aggregates and why indicative rate bands move.
- Ministry for Primary Industries
The agency publishing production and sector information underlying the seasonal patterns referred to here.
- Inland Revenue, farming and agriculture
Context for the tax treatment of farm assets, which is excluded from these figures and is a matter for the accountant.
- Personal Property Securities Register
The register whose search and filing fees appear as disbursements on a secured rural facility.
- Financial Markets Authority, financial advice
Backs the distinction between general information of this kind and regulated financial advice.
FAQ
The seasonal calculation, questions
Why does this calculate interest rather than a repayment?
Because a seasonal facility has no repayment schedule. It is drawn as costs are incurred and repaid when income arrives, so a repayment figure would imply an amortising product and misdescribe what is being used.
What should be entered as the drawn balance?
The average balance expected across the season, taken from twelve monthly closing balances where a facility already exists. That figure determines the cost.
How is the limit decided then?
From the peak rather than the average, which is ordinarily a long way above it. The lowest month in the statements gives the peak, and the limit should be sized against the worst of the last few seasons with a margin.
Why is sizing on the average a problem?
Because it leaves the business short at the deepest point of the drawdown, which is generally just before income arrives and is exactly the moment nothing can be done about it.
Does the tool include the line fee?
No. The line fee applies to the limit rather than the balance and is charged whether or not the facility is drawn, so it has to be added separately to reach an annual total.
Do the sector shapes apply to my farm?
They are general shapes rather than benchmarks. Every business should take its own figures from its own statements, which are more accurate than any general description including the one on this page.
Are the figures here quotes?
No. Everything on this page is indicative and illustrative. Actual rates, limits and terms come from a lender after assessment, and nothing here is an offer of credit.
Is anything entered here transmitted?
No. The calculator runs entirely in the browser, nothing is sent anywhere and no personal details are collected on this site at all.
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