Ireland cattle mystery

Creditors are asking questions on the whereabouts of cattle supposedly held on the Riverina property of Corey and Prue Ireland.

Stock queries: Corey and Prue Ireland told clients they have had to “greatly reduce stock numbers”.

CREDITORS are asking questions on the whereabouts of a number of cattle supposedly held on the Kyeamba property of Corey and Prue Ireland.

A number of creditors have claims on more than 2000 cattle but the Ireland’s property, Ivydell, is only 125 hectares in size.

The Irelands Angus website claims they run 1100 stud and commercial Angus breeding females, plus sell about 350 bulls each year.

On December 24, Westpac Banking Corporation took court action to protect its rights over 1654 cattle reportedly held on the Irelands property.

Four 0 Eight Angus Pty Ltd — the owner of the 408 Angus stud set up by late Australian test cricketer Phil Hughes — has a Personal Property Security Register registration over 55 stud female cattle held by the Irelands.

Over the past two years a dispute has unfolded in the courts over 375 cattle bought from the Jondaryan Angus stud near Toowoomba in Queensland. Most of the cattle were supposed to be on properties owned or leased by the Irelands.

The Weekly Times has been told the Irelands leased three properties in the past five years.

A source said the lease on one of the properties ended about four or five years ago.

Another source said the other two leases ended about a year ago.

An initial report by liquidators of former Ireland family trust trustee CD & PJ Ireland said Westpac had a PPSR registration over 1654 stud and commercial cattle, bought through a loan of about $3.5 million.

On December 24, the Supreme Court of NSW granted Westpac an order to appoint Morgan Kelly and Will Colwell, of KPMG as receivers to IFTT Pty Ltd, the new trustee of the Ireland family trust.

It is not clear whether the receivers have accounted for the 1654 cattle that Westpac has a claim over.

“We are in the early investigation stage so there are still a number of unknowns,” Mr Kelly said.

“We are working closely with the authorities and with existing management, with our primary concern being the welfare of the cattle.

“Our investigations regarding the location and ownership of cattle are ongoing.”

Mr Ireland would not answer questions put by The Weekly Times about the number and location of cattle on the property early last week.

He said the information was “commercially sensitive information and will not be disclosed”, despite claiming figures on the business’ website.

But later in the week, Mr and Mrs Ireland published a note to clients on the Ireland’s Angus website saying they had been “forced to greatly reduce our stock numbers over the past couple of years” and had to forego two leased properties.

“Our focus now is our property Ivydell, where like many others, we have introduced containment feeding as it is the most efficient and economical means of maintaining as many head of cattle as possible on limited acreage”.

“We are also utilising some agistment for the care of our remaining cattle,” they said.