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Autumn 2017 Property Pull-Out March 20, 2017
farmersweekly.co.nz
Quality farms attract interest Alan Williams alan.williams@nzx.com
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OME notable opportunities are on offer among the autumn-listed farms on sale in the lower North Island. They include two big, irrigated blocks near Bulls farmed by one of the region’s biggest farming groups, the Dalrymple family. They’re retaining the home block but redeploying other capital. One of the blocks is of 233ha, with pivot irrigation to 165ha and the balance in heavy sand-based pasture, the largest irrigated nondairy farm and providing one of the few remaining large parcels of land in the lower North Island with potential for conversion to dairying, selling agents at Property Brokers said. The property was already fully developed for livestock farming and cropping, with highyielding maize and fodder beet production and could also be further developed for an intensive finishing and cropping regime, Property Brokers agent Blair Cottrill said. The indicative price for the farm was about $6.75 million. Nearby was a 162ha block with 65ha under pivot irrigation and the balance in free-draining sand pasture. The combination provided guaranteed summer production as well as wintering capacity on the sand-country. Extensively upgraded, the property had a wide range of uses under the current farming operations including a winter feed lot, lamb and cattle finishing, dairy grazing and cash and fodder cropping, Cottrill said. Like the other block it had highyielding maize silage and fodder beet. With an indicative price over $4.25m, the block would complement an existing farming operating but was large enough to be a stand-alone unit. The agency had two other listings of large-scale operations of their type, including a 253ha dairy farm at Ohakea, described as offering a scale seldom seen in the lower North Island. It calved 550 cows in the latest season with production consistently over 1000kg MS a
hectare with all cows and heifers able to be wintered on the property. And one of the largest landholdings of its type in the area was the 659ha Twin Rivers property, about 19km from Feilding. With about 215ha in flats and the same area in rolling contour, Twin Rivers was farmed on a breeding and finishing programme but could be used for any intensive pastoral/cropping regime, Cottrill said. Also on the Property Brokers’ books was Waiaruhe Station at Dannevirke, typically a finishing farm but in recent years able to fatten and trade 40,000 lambs a year on its 390ha of cultivated land.
There is very strong interest in the best dairy farms but the levels fall away to just one or two buyers and then a big emphasis on price on farms below that level.
SCALE: Land being sold by the Dalrymple family near Bulls comprises two big blocks of 233ha and 162ha.
Simon Anderson Bayleys Cottrill reported good sales activity over the summer and strong interest in good quality listings through the wider district, boosted by summer and recent rain providing exceptional grass growth. One trend in the sheep and beef sector was for specialist breeding farmers wanting to expand into finishing operations and vice versa to enable them to maximise value, he said. They were able to do that through Manawatu without having to travel too far between properties. There had been dairy farm sales over the summer in the range of $25,000/ha to $32,000/ha and indications were of a confidence in the sector with a $6kg/MS payout seen as close to long-term value, without getting carried away with that. Nationwide group Bayleys was finding very strong interest in the best dairy farms but the levels falling away to just one or two
SIZE: Twin Rivers near Feilding at 659ha is one of the largest land holdings of its type in the area.
buyers and then a big emphasis on price on farms below that level, NZ country manager Simon Anderson said. His agents were seeing buyers putting a major focus on cashflows and particularly not being forced to rely on cashflows to do deferred maintenance on properties they were looking to buy. “Previously they might have paid a bit more in a less desirable area but now they’re
understanding cashflows better, realising there’s not as much fat in the system and we’re also seeing them use more professional advice where before they might have just worked it out themselves.” Bayleys was involved in good sales activity levels in Waikato and parts of Bay of Plenty and Canterbury was also strong. There had been good prices in Taranaki where properties offered more than just the farming
operations, examples being close to New Plymouth or having sea views. The Waikato market still had a lot of smaller dairy farms, in the 80ha to 120ha bracket, where there was competition between neighbours wanting to expand and other existing farmers in the wider region and the size of farms involved meant first-time farmers could also be competitive in fringe areas away from the best zones.