Matt and Alli Reid to sell southwest Victorian dairy

An award-winning Victorian dairy farming family is selling its 650ha farm near Colac, making “one of hardest decisions of their lives”.

AN award-winning southwest Victorian dairy family has decided to exit the industry after spending 20 years crafting one of state’s finest farms, making what they described as one of hardest decisions of their lives.

Matt and Alli Reid, winners of The Weekly Times Coles 2020 Farmer of the Year award, are selling their 650ha Carlisle River dairy, located in Victoria’s Otways region, about 30 minutes south of Colac.

“It is hard to put into words, we have poured everything into this,” Alli said.

“20 years has gone incredibly fast. We keep saying to people we don’t know one single reason for why we are choosing to exit, it is more the sum of 20 little reasons. We just want to have another experience in life,” Matt said.

“The two hardest conversations we had were with our kids.

“They are 20, 19 and 15-years-old, two of them have gone into trades, however selling the farm doesn’t exclude them from farming in the future. If they want to, we would be happy to support them.

The Weekly Times Coles 2020 Farmer of the Year winners Alli and Matt Reid, with their children Elijah, Angus and Rylee, 13 at Carlisle River in 2021. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

“The other was with our staff. We are so grateful to our longstanding team and certainly hope an incoming purchaser retains them. They have a deep understanding of the farm and would be very hard to replace.”

Dairying has always been in the family for Matt, growing up on a northern Victorian dairy between Rochester and Kyabram.

Initially he did a boilermaker trade while Alli completed a traineeship at a local retail store, but after travelling across Australia, they decided to commit to dairy farming back home.

CARLISLE RIVER

OTWAY MILK

Property: dairy

Size: 651ha

Sale: expressions of interest closing October 4 at 12pm

Price: more than $20 million

Agent: LAWD

Contacts: Danny Thomas, 0439 349 977 and Erica Semmens, 0419 714 039

In 2003 they relocated to southwest Victoria, seeking the lush pastures of the Otways, finding their “hidden gem” at Carlisle River.

During the last 20 years they have doubled the size of the property thanks to four purchases between 2006 and 2016.

The Reid family’s Otway Milk now comprises the parcels Riverslea, Carinya, Springbank, Tullohlea and Bones, milking about 675 cows to produce about five million litres of milk and 425,000 kilograms of milk solids annually. They also carry 400 heifer replacements.

“It has been fantastic and we have enjoyed every minute of it, riding the bumps along the way,” Matt said.

Otway Milk’s Matt and Alli Reid. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

“We haven’t got anything planned yet, but we don’t like to sit on our hands, so we will need to find a new challenge to look forward to.”

LAWD senior director Danny Thomas, who is handling the sale of the property, said the Otway Milk property had irrigation development potential thanks to 526ML of combined water licences, which underpin a proposed centre pivot irrigation development, as well as 1066mm of reliable annual rainfall.

“The Reid family built a really good operation which presents incredibly well,” Mr Thomas said.

At Otway Milk Alli and Matt Reid milk 675 cows and carry 400 heifer replacements.

“I think the market is stratifying at the higher end and this offering would be in the institutional bucket for dairy farms with 700 cows. At the higher end of things where you can attract institutional investors there is no decline in value – things are remaining very strong.”

Existing infrastructure at Otway Milk is fit-for-purpose and includes a 50-unit rotary dairy, a recently constructed 160-head calf shed, machinery shedding, workshops and a concrete feedpad.

There is also a recently refurbished (2021) two storey, four-bedroom brick residence as well as a guesthouse, along with two four-bedroom and two three-bedroom dwellings.