Buy now, pay later arrangements like Afterpay and Zip have become increasingly popular for consumers to use in the retail space.
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But more farmers are now also becoming more inclined to use buy now, pay later products to help fund their operations on the farm.
This form of credit allows farmers to purchase necessary equipment and supplies without paying upfront have been taken up in an effort to precisely make the right purchases for inputs.
DelayPay chief executive and Kiewa Valley beef farmer Kelsey Miller said "just over 1000" farmers have signed up to take up the company's buy now, pay later products.
He said he noticed the ability to get quick cash flow support had been missing in the agriculture space when he began the company about four and a half years ago and exponentially grew through the COVID pandemic.
"I think that it's probably fair to say that over half of that volume has probably come on deck in the last two years, so the growth in the last couple of years has been stronger in customer numbers probably off the back of the fact that we're obviously very new at the start," he said.
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Mr Miller said a wide variety of farmers have been enquiring about credit for a variety of reasons.
"Definitely on the on the beef side of things, we would say that people tend to use us for, say, cow and calf unit type purchases between the sale of their other livestock," he said
"For example they might be normally ready to sell some steers in a couple of months' time, but if a really good buying opportunity came up for a cow and calf unit, they'll be able to then purchase that and then pay us back off the proceeds of whatever they're selling next
"That enables them to get in while the markets in the right spot, and it gives them the flexibility to make the purchase at the right time."
He also cites current positive price trends in mutton over the last few weeks after a subdued sheep market and financing in dairy operations as examples of the diversity of how his buy now, pay later could work for farmers.
Mr Miller said it allows farmers to maximise opportunities when they come.
"Dairy farmers tend to use us predominantly on stock feed for purchasing when they want to boost milk production," he said.
"Pricings are in a good spot obviously in the last year (for dairy farmers), and we've seen people use our product to boost their pellet supply, for example, above and beyond what they might normally do just to maximise the amount of returns they making those good months.
But there are concerns that this line of credit could also lead to increased debt among farmers.
Consumer Action Law Centre is broadly campaigning to remove exemptions that exist for the buy now, pay later sector which exempt it from the federal Credit Act, which offers consumer protection and places responsible lending requirements on providers.
Consumer Action Law Centre policy officer Alex Macafee said buy now, pay later schemes were constantly evolving in how they target different groups of people and a diverse demographic have been calling the national debt helpline.
"We know that farmers are contending with a lot of external pressures and volatility that make financial management more complex," she said.
"I think that buy now, pay later companies know this, and it's part of how they market their services to farmers."
Ms Macafee said she worried the reasons that buy now, pay later services might be attractive to farmers are the same reasons that the debts may be difficult to repay leading to financial instability and even bankruptcy.
"The model is designed to avoid consumer protection laws like affordability assessments, so companies can end up trapping people in more debt than they can ever feasibly pay back, especially if they have other debts outside of buy now, pay later," she said.
"For people in rural areas, we know that environmental risk factors can really contribute to financial instability and buy now, pay later services impose late fees and account charges that really drive up the cost of their products if you can't pay to the strict schedule."
She urged anyone who had concerns about their financial situation to call the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007, which is a free service.
Mr Miller said there were an extensive range of processes DelayPay undertook including character and credit checks to ensure customer protection.
"We want to ensure that we've got the ability to say that the money is going to come back in at some stage for the goods that we've sold them," he said.
"We are actually a trader of goods rather than a traditional lending style business... and we provide longer for people to pay so that they've got some flexibility."
