Grown all year, sold for Christmas
The business grows poultry in the top of the South Island and sells to butchers. The birds take months to raise, and the trade is built around one season.
November and December are when the orders come. The butchers want the birds for the Christmas counter, so most of the year’s invoicing happens in those weeks.
The butchers paid on the 20th or at the end of the month after, the owner said. So a bird sold for Christmas is paid for in the new year.
The quiet middle of the year
Raising birds for one season means paying for them long before it. The feed and the running of the farm are paid for through autumn and winter, when there’s little to invoice.
In July 2024, the owner told the FundTap team the sales were seasonal and bunched into the run-up to Christmas.
The middle of the year was the quiet stretch, the owner explained, and the bills still had to be paid through it. It’s the oldest gap in farming: the money goes out with the growing and comes in with the selling.
Funding the invoices to the butchers
They signed up in July 2024 through their broker, then didn’t fund anything until October 2025, and the wait cost them nothing. That month they funded their first two invoices.
They can see what each one costs before they go ahead, and the butchers keep paying the business on their usual terms.
Stock built up for Christmas
With a sold invoice funded, the money from the last lot of birds goes into growing the next. The feed through the quiet months is covered without waiting on a butcher’s 20th.
That’s the room a grower needs to build stock ahead of the season. August 2026 was their busiest month so far, with four invoices funded as the Christmas birds were coming on.
While the birds are growing
Seven invoices have been funded since October 2025: two in 2025 and five in 2026. The ones they fund go out in the quiet months, when the birds are growing and the bills don’t wait.
Between those moments the account costs nothing, and the Christmas money arrives from the butchers as it always has.
The timeline
- July 2024 Introduced by their broker and signed up, with the year’s big sales still months away.
- October 2025 Funded their first two invoices, with the feed bills running ahead of the season.
- May 2026 Funded again in the quiet middle of the year.
- August 2026 Their busiest month so far, with four invoices funded ahead of the Christmas season.
In numbers
- 20th or the end of the month after: when the butchers pay
- 7 invoices funded since October 2025, in the quiet months of the growing year
- 4 invoices funded in August 2026, the busiest month so far
Invoices funded each month, as a table
| Month | Invoices funded |
|---|---|
| October 2025 | 2 |
| November 2025 | 0 |
| December 2025 | 0 |
| January 2026 | 0 |
| February 2026 | 0 |
| March 2026 | 0 |
| April 2026 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 1 |
| June 2026 | 0 |
| July 2026 | 0 |
| August 2026 | 4 |
| September 2026 | 0 |
Sound like your business?
The birds are fed all year and the butchers pay after Christmas. Fund the invoices that are already out and keep the flock growing.
Fund the big seasonal invoice without waiting on the buyer.
