Maryfield and Limbunya, Mount Doreen, Jimarndy stations: Farm buyers chasing cattle country

Blue-ribbon cattle farms across the nation are yielding big bucks on the market, as buyers remain hungry for Aussie farmland.

Tallis Miles

@tallis_miles

4 min read

November 3, 2022 - 11:01AM

The Weekly Times

While the world’s economic picture looks murky and uncertain, rural property values in Australia are continuing to rise to record levels.

Despite farmland rates skyrocketing for more than two years, demand for rural property is still outpacing the tight supply of properties on the market.

Rabobank’s annual Australian Agricultural Land Price Outlook found Australian farmland prices are on track for another year of double-digit growth, but the rate of growth is anticipated to slow over the next five years.

The bank’s analysis showed agricultural land prices increased across the nation by 27 per cent (median price per hectare) last year, with expected growth of more than 25 per cent this year.

Since August a number of headline sales have been completed including a $175 million deal for the 660,000-hectare Maryfield and Limbunya cattle station aggregation in the Northern Territory. After first being listed in late 2020, a deal was struck with North Star Pastoral selling the aggregation to Sydney-based Wealthcheck funds manager Sam Mitchell, who acquired the farmland while Brisbane-based AAM Investments bought 50,000 cattle and will operate the farms in a lease arrangement with Wealthcheck.

Mount Doreen station.

Australia’s largest private landholders, Viv Oldfield and Donny Costello, also expanded their Crown Point Pastoral Company holdings with the $70 million acquisition of the 733,700-hectare Mount Doreen Station in central Northern Territory.

A record price for a single cattle station was also set, until it wasn’t, when the $250 million deal fell through for Australian billionaire businessman Brett Blundy’s one million-hectare Walhallow and Creswell Downs aggregation in the Northern Territory. A Sydney-based asset manager was the pending buyer, but the properties are now back on the market.

Notable demand for cattle properties across Northern Australia is expected to intensify as Australia rebuilds its livestock herd, says CBRE Agribusiness managing director David Goodfellow.

“The rural property market in Australia continues to gain strength on the back of a return to more normal seasonal conditions and ongoing confidence in the outlook for commodity prices,” Goodfellow says.

“We saw the Australian cattle numbers drop from about 29 million cattle to around 24 million cattle during the drought.

“Demand for good quality cattle properties is very strong right across Australia at the moment, and we expect this to continue while our commodity prices remain firm and while Australia continues to rebuild its cattle numbers.”

Baker Grain Aggregation.

Strong desire for cattle country has also been signalled by one of the largest privately owned beef producers in Australia making its first purchase in several years.

The reshaped Consolidated Pastoral Company in September completed a $48 million deal for the Simon family’s 17,600-hectare Jimarndy cattle aggregation near May Downs in central Queensland.

Further south, a handful of premier farms have been listed for sale at the height of the spring selling season.

After 33 years in charge, the Baker family are selling their 3010-hectare Baker Grain Aggregation on the Murray River near Howlong, NSW. The Riverina cropping powerhouse could be worth up to $100 million with developed irrigation country in the region achieving about $24,700 a hectare.

West of Baker Grain by about 110km, the Scott family is selling its 4850-hectare mixed-farming aggregation Aratula, at Tocumwal, for more than $40 million after five generations in charge.

After seven years of rural land price increases, LAWD senior director Col Medway says buyers and investors seeking value should consider dairy, West Australian farms, carbon and Northern Territory cotton, while demand is hottest in Victoria’s Western District and the NSW eastern Riverina.

“Mixed farming regions are still the strongest,” Medway says. “They’re reliable regions for rainfall in most years, and I suppose, it’s the old story where capital flocks to quality – in any market those areas are obviously highly sought after.”

Medway also says interest rates are still at relatively low levels, with demand for rural property continuing to outstrip supply.

“In March this year interest rates were at 0.1 per cent and now they are 2.35 per cent – if you look at history, they were always going to rise, at some stage,” he says. “There certainly isn’t the flood of inquiries we have seen over the previous two spring selling seasons, however there is still very, very good solid inquiry from highly qualified buyers who are finance-approved, active in the market and looking to expand.”

With an eye to the future RaboResearch general manager Australia and New Zealand and report author Stefan Vogel says a declining economic outlook, with higher farm operating costs and relatively lower farm incomes, means the market is unlikely to sustain a continuation of the massive land price growth rates seen in recent years.