- Report forecasts continued growth in the sector throughout 2023
- Changing weather conditions to the El Nino pattern are expected from 2024 onward
- No decline in agricultural land prices is forecast, according to the report
Rabobank recently released its annual Australian Agricultural Land Price Outlook, and two agricultural properties have been listed across the eastern seaboard.
It is generally good news for the sector, which has experienced buoyant conditions over the past few years, enjoying favourable conditions and low-interest rates.
Australian land and crops both primed for growth
Farmland remains a hot commodity, according to Rabobank’s latest Australian Agricultural Land Price Outlook.
The sector is expected to see doubled-digit percentage growth again this year, albeit with a slower pace come 2024.
Rabobank’s report said the three consecutive seasons of good financial performance in Australia’s farm sector were “… driven by high commodity prices and good weather conditions for the majority of the country.”
The bank’s analysis of Digital Agricultural Services (DAS) farmland sales data found that agricultural land prices rose 29% across Australia in 2022 (median price per hectare). Cropping land and dairy likewise rose by 29%, with livestock grazing land rising by 26%.
Report author, RaboResearch agriculture analyst Vitor Pistoia said agricultural land prices across the country had soared again in 2022, with the “macro settings” having been favourable for land purchases and farming profits in Australia.
“Prices for most major commodities reached record highs, widespread rainfall supported agricultural yields – which also surpassed historical records in some regions – and interest rates were at historical lows for almost half the year,” he said.
Pistoria said “farmland sale prices in early 2023 are still setting new records”, with the pace of growth to slow thereafter, potentially through to 2028; there was no forecast decline in agricultural land prices.
One potential factor in the slowing of growth is the potential for drier weather due to El Nino weather patterns, said Pistoia, “… which may hamper agricultural yields… impacting farmers’ appetite for buying land.”
Menindee watermelon farm for sale
Copi Station, located southwest of Broken Hill, has hit the market and is expecting prices of between $12 million and $15 million.
The 1,738.9-hectare property at 340 West Wilcannia Road is being listed for sale by watermelon growers Lunar Produce, after being developed to suit watermelon production in addition to other horticulture pursuits and tourism opportunities (STCA).
Producing more than 9,000 tonnes of seedless watermelons in the first year’s crop, the station is situated across both freehold and a New South Wales Water land lease, with 15 years remaining and five-year extensions thereafter.
Lunar Produce have developed the station over the past two years with new irrigation infrastructure, 28-person staff quarters and facilities, three houses, a packing shed, two machinery sheds and sundry improvements.
CBRE Agribusiness’s Phil Schell and Angus Bills are managing the Expressions of Interest campaign, closing on 8 June 2023.
“The property has existing approvals to irrigate over 178 hectares, with plant and equipment available through negotiation and the sale includes a 180 megalitre high-security water licence via the Lower Darling Regulated River Water source,” Bills said.
Schell added, “We are expecting interest from corporate groups and parties looking to expand their current holdings in sectors such as irrigated food production, horticulture, hay, fodder and silage production as well as feed lotting opportunities.”
Iconic beef and lamb property heads to market
A Cootamundra holding has come to market, noted by LAWD Senior Director, Col Medway, as one the largest contiguous holdings within the South West Slopes region in New South Wales.
The property going to market is a 3,605 hectare aggregation, comprising the 1,631 hectare Gilgal, the 1,633 hectare Winona, and the 341 hectare O’Connors. It is located 75 kilometres from Wagga Wagga and five kilometres from Cootamundra.
It will be the second time in the property’s 158 year history that it has been brought to market, and is steeped in local history, having been settled by Samuel Ward in 1865.
Today, the property presents a multi-enterprise opportunity suited to beef breeding and fattening, prime lamb, wool, and diverse crop production, only changing hands once when acquired by commercial and seedstock beef cattle producer, Palgrove, in 2019.
“One of the defining features of this asset is the flexibility of loam soils, security of water supply and well enterprise, with the mix of fertile red friable executed strategic development making it equally suited to cattle, sheep and wool, cereal, legume or oil seed production,” said Medway.
“Further, the introduction of grazing wheat and canola varieties to the cropping rotation now underpins a mixed farming production system that has proven climatic resilience due to the diversity of levers available to management to productively and profitably navigate varied seasonal and market conditions.”
Among the property features are 71 main paddocks serviced by a comprehensive laneway system and multiple road access points offered by dual frontage to Olympic Highway, and a five-bedroom, three-bathroom homestead.
The Gilgal Aggregation is expected to fetch above $55 million for land only, with livestock, plant, and equipment also available. Expressions of interest close 12pm, Thursday 1 June 2023.
