Tasmanian dairy farms draw mainland green investment

Tasmania’s clean environment has prompted the Sustainable Agricultural Fund to recently expand its farming investment, snapping up two dairies totaling 485 hectares, with the potential to milk about 1,200 cows.

The $10 million acquisition adds to last year’s nearby $16 million purchase of 640 hectares, with the potential to milk about 1,700 cows.

The latest acquisition of the dairies in northern Tasmania near Devonport were purchased through Harcourts rural director John Hewitt from the Dawson family, who developed the farms from small-scale dairies over 25 years.

SAF executive chairman Arthur Apted says institutional investors are looking for a long-term return of 10% (including growth in capital).

The fund raised $145 million from a small number of institutional and wholesale Australian investors, including AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick, who invested $3 million in 2009.

It is an unlisted fund that invests in land ownership and husbandry.

SAF mainland ownership includes the North Star aggregation in NSW, a 9,719-hectare mixed agricultural farm bought from five different vendors near Moree.

Most of the cropping land at Moree was purchased from farmers looking to exit the industry, which included 50- plus farmers whose children don’t want to follow them into farming.

Meanwhile, Australia's largest dairy farmer, 185-year-old Tasmanian-based Van Diemen's Land Company, which owns 23 farms in the Circular Heads area including the historic Woolnorth properties, has surpassed the 5 million kilogram-milk solids (kgms) production mark for the first time.

Van Diemen's Land Company is owned by New Zealand's Tasman Farms Ltd, with significant investor Taranaki Investment Management Ltd.

Production on the farms totalling 19,000 hectares in Tasmania's northwest corner previously peaked at 4.2 million kgms in 2008-09.