Tim and Sally Watson sell Sunland Agriculture Aggregation to MERS Global Investments LLC

Sunland Agriculture has sold for a huge price after it was listed for sale by Tim Watson – the chair of Australia’s biggest cotton processing company.

A NSW farming family and one of Australian cotton’s biggest names has offloaded their renowned irrigation farm for $45m-plus.

Farmers Tim and Sally Watson have sold their 1747ha Sunland Agriculture Aggregation to MERS Global Investments LLC, via MRA Merrowie Pty Ltd.

Mr Watson, who is also the chairman of Namoi Cotton – Australia’s biggest cotton processing company, listed the aggregation for sale in June last year.

Sunland, located near Hillston in the Riverina, features over 20km of Lachlan River frontage, a five bedroom homestead and 1000ha developed to spray irrigation and row crops.

The deal also includes about 15,000ml of Lachlan General and High Security water entitlement and Lower Lachlan groundwater entitlement.

Elders selling agent Matt Horne said he fielded widespread interest for the premier holding.

“It was a competitive marketing process throughout and we had interest from local, interstate and overseas buyers,” he said.

MRA Merrowie is a vehicle for US-based group, MERS Global Investments LLC which purchased the 32,730ha Merrowie Station at Hillston in 2019.

Mr Horne said MRA Merrowie plans to run the aggregation in similar way to the Watson family.

Sunland Agriculture Aggregation homestead

The staff at Sunland have been retained and plan on growing summer crops which include cotton, sweet corn and beetroot and winter crops of cereals, barley and canola.

In conjunction with MRA Merrowie the farm will be managed by Customised Farm Management, an Australian-based agricultural asset management company.

The property was sold by Elders and FTI Consulting.