This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
SIGNATURE mixed farming opportunity Homestead View, in the sought-after Greenethorpe district in NSW’s South West Slopes, has hit the market after 40 years in the hands of farming practices pioneer Richard Langley.
With a gentle undulating landscape, about 96% of the 476.4-hectare property is arable and currently used for dryland cropping – dual purpose cereals and canola – and prime lamb production.
The balance is land and low-lying areas sown to native trees.
Langley is considered a pioneer of farming practices to improve soil health and “outstanding” soil test results confirm the significant investment made to improve soil fertility during his ownership, according to selling agency LAWD.
Since purchasing Homestead View in 1984, Langley has adopted best practices in conservation farming including establishing native trees, adoption of minimum tillage, retaining stubbles, grazing livestock on a rotational basis, and applying soil ameliorants such as lime and manures to complement conventional fertilisers.
“While some of these practices hadn’t been done before, after 10 years of trial and error, modifying combines and manipulating stubbles, we really started noticing a change in the soils,” Langley said.
Many trees were planted in the early 1990s to halt rising water tables and for erosion control, which ultimately earned the NSW Silver Landcare Primary Producers Award in 2001.
Conservation at Homestead View has been ongoing, while proven results have been shown in prime lamb production, along with lucerne based pastures and grazing and grain crops of wheat, triticale, canola and pulses.
Investment has been made in operational improvements to support the livestock and cropping enterprises including maintaining a three-stand shearing shed, steel bugle sheep yards, machinery, shedding, workshop, solar array and around 712 tonnes of grain storage.
Secure water resources include 12 dams and a bore, which supplies a reticulated watering system to a network of troughs and the garden. Rainwater is collected in multiple new rainwater tanks from all buildings and sheds, providing approximately 275,000 litres of potable water used for paddock spraying, house and domestic supplies.
Improvements include a circa-1917 four-bedroom, two-bathroom, homestead, set within established gardens and with an inground solar-heated mineral water swimming pool.
LAWD agent Col Medway, said Homestead View was a “signature listing for the region”, well-recognised for the innovative conservation efforts deployed over many years and for the numerous awards received for land care and conservation farming.
“Buyers who appreciate farm management that successfully balances conservation with high production and profitability will be impressed the vendors have spent almost 40 years of their working life dedicated to these principles,” he said.
Elsewhere in the South West Slopes region, ASX-listed Duxton Farms recently offloaded its large-scale dryland cropping property Timberscombe for $70 million to Altora Ag, the cropping arm of Canadian pension fund PSP Investments.