This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
PROMINENT Melbourne-based barrister Allan Myers KC has offloaded part of his 386,000-hectare Northern Territory aggregation that will be used by its new owners for regenerative agriculture.
Cattle station Douglas West spans 42,300 hectares alongside the Stuart Highway, about an hour and a half from Darwin. It is the smallest of the Tipperary Group of Companies three-station aggregation, which also includes Tipperary East and West, spanning nearly 210,000 hectares, and the 134,000-hectare Litchfield.
The whole aggregation has carried 10,000 Brahman breeders and 30,000 steers and heifers in previous seasons, and also produced irrigated and dryland fodder production, as well as mangos and lemons.
Douglas West is now in the hands of Northern Territory-based farm management and investment group CropScale Australia, which is owned by Coppelian Ventures, part of Australian-owned UK venture capital group Coppelian Capital Advisors.
Douglas West will be their seed asset.
Project managing director Phillip Walter told Beef Central that CropScale would focus on renewing and enhancing soil health and nutrient levels, and use Douglas West for dryland cropping, mostly sorghum, and cattle production.
“Lack of working capital and negative impacts on profitability are the most quoted barriers to farmers transitioning to a regenerative approach to soil ecology,” he said.
“CropScale has developed a broadacre farming methodology specifically for large-scale (greater than 2,000 hectares) operations designed to increase crop margins, farm profitability, and reduce input costs. Regenerative agriculture and maximising shareholder value are not opposites.”
“Regenerative agriculture prioritises cropping strategies that add organic matter and biodiversity to soil, leading to a more resilient ecosystem,” Walter said.
“This practice involves techniques including crop rotation, cover cropping, reduced tillage, and integrating livestock manures. Regenerative methodologies structured for the NT result in a self-sustaining agricultural system that not only produces more nutritious food but also sequesters carbon in the soil, and when combined with our technology platform reduces reliance on external fertiliser inputs.”
Allan Myers is a major stakeholder in the Tipperary Group of Companies through Branir Pty Ltd. Booloomani Corporation, a group of strategic investors, also holds a stake.
Myers also owns the Dunkeld Pastoral Company, which holds more than 12,000 hectares of agricultural land in Victoria’s western District.
Australian farmland total annualised return is at 11.29%, with this quarter seeing a return to positive performance after two consecutive periods of negative results.
