80-cow dairy farm sold for almost $57,000 a hectare

A 32ha dairy farm in southwest Victoria, home to a herd of 80 cows, has been sold through a hotly contested auction.

A 32ha dairy farm in southwest Victoria has been sold for $1.84 million.

A local dairy farmer has paid almost $57,000 a hectare to snap up an 80-cow dairy farm through a hotly contested auction.

The 32.37ha dairy farm at Nirranda South, 40km from Warrnambool, was sold under the hammer for about $56,800 a hectare ($23,000 an acre) through a recent auction, ending the Bushell family’s longstanding tenure at the historic farm.

Bidding for the property started at $29,460 a hectare before a race between two neighbouring farmers pushed the winning price to near record levels on a per hectare basis.

A crowd of about 60 people witnessed the auction at the Nirranda South Football Clubrooms, where the property was sold for a total of $1.84 million.

Offered for sale by the estate of Edward Bushell and his family, the Nirranda South property had been held by the family for more than 100 years, retaining it as a 32ha block for their entire tenure.

The Nirranda South farm was also sold without irrigation.

Charles Stewart and Co selling agent Nick Adamson said a number of high-priced dairy farm sales had been completed in the highly regarded South West of Victoria recently, underpinned by several seasons of quality milk prices and a desire of local landholders to secure additional farmland.

A three-bedroom cottage was part of the Bushell family’s Nirranda South farm.

“It has been a productive little dairy farm, milking 80 cows on 80-acres (32ha). There are not too many 80-acre (32ha) dairy farms still in operation, we wouldn’t have sold one for quite a while,” Mr Adamson said.

“Certainly in the greater Nullaware region, including Naringal, Nirranda and Nirranda South there is a bit of a fish bowl where we have seen some significant transactions over the last 12 months.

“Some of these have been at levels I have never witnessed.

“Weather in that corridor southeast of Warrnambool has generally been pretty good, and they haven’t had a very wet winter, so production has been a bit higher than normal.

“But there’s not a lot of moisture in the (soil) profile, so we will need those rains to continue.”

The Bushell’s dairy farm was sold with a longstanding history, once home to the Nirranda South’s post office and telephone exchange which were run from the farm’s original house.

The circa 1910-1920 three-bedroom home at the property features a central hallway with modern kitchen, dining and bathroom and laundry.

Subdivided into 16 paddocks the farm also offered a functioning eight-swing over H/B dairy and three-bay steel machinery shed.