Numurkah farms and southeast South Australian farm, Woodebo, snapped up by locals

Two tightly held northern Victorian cropping farms and a southeast SA grazing farm have been sold in separate deals worth millions.

Three tightly held properties, two in Victoria and the other in southeastern South Australia, have been sold to local farmers in separate deals worth more than $11.4 million combined.

Southeastern South Australia’s stellar run of farm sales has continued with a 502ha grazing property sold after being passed in at auction in November last year.

Located at 1318 Charcutt Rd, Coles, about 35km northwest of Penola, a local family have sold Woodebo to an undisclosed local buyer, in a deal understood to be worth more than $7.44 million

The property was auctioned on November 11 last year, but was passed in. It is understood to have been sold post-auction for a figure at the low end of the range between $14,820-$16,055 a hectare ($6000-$6500 an acre).

The deal comes after the Lillicrap family paid $5.4 million at a Penola auction to secure the 266ha Hodges mixed farm from the same local vendor.

The purchaser of Woodebo was not the Lillicrap family.

The vendor had owned both Hodges and the 502ha Woodebo (pictured) in the family since 1964.

TDC Livestock and Property agents Tom Pearce and Mark De Garis completed the sales of Hodges and Woodebo.

Woodebo has been run solely as a grazing property used for a self-replacing Merino and first cross-breeding enterprise.

With more than $200 million worth of South Australian farms changing hands in recent months, Mr Pearce said succession planning timing has been a key factor in the number of sales.

“We have seen the trend of local farming families as purchasers, particularly those located within a 50km radius,” he said.

“The volume of sales also helps a form of value and that has helped supply.”

Mr Pearce said he was expecting the buyer dynamic to change as interest rates continued to rise this year.

“There’s definitely still confidence in the market, but we might see the buyer pool contract a little bit,” he said.

Meanwhile in northern Victoria, Warren and Shauna Miller have sold two portions of their 670ha cropping aggregation located at Naring, near Numurkah.

The 127ha Staffy’s, located at 693 Lukies Rd, was sold through auction for about $15,823 a hectare ($6400 per acre) for a total of slightly more than $2 million.

The Millers have used their aggregation for a dryland cropping program with wheat, barley and canola crops, seeing yields of up to seven tonnes a hectare for wheat and 3.5 tonnes for canola.

A local farming family with adjoining farmland purchased the property.

The 149.1ha Bourke’s block, located at 348 Mills Rd, Naring, was also sold through auction to a separate neighbouring farming family, where it fetched $13,840 per hectare ($5600 an acre) for a total of slightly more than $2 million.

The Miller family also offered the 208ha Baker’s block and 191ha Home Farm blocks, which were passed in at auction on a vendor bid and are now in negotiations to be sold.

Part of their four-farm aggregation has been held by the Millers for more than 130 years, while Staffy’s and Bourke’s were added by the family in the last 20 years.