This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
AFTER a lifetime of development, one of Australia’s large-scale poultry pioneers, David Bartter, has offloaded his 26,839-hectare Riverina aggregation Ballandry, having listed the property with expectations of around $120 million.
Ballandry is composed of 16 dryland cropping properties put together over four decades by Bartter, and is now under the ownership of a joint venture between local farmer Nick Paterson and Canada’s Fiera Comox Partners, named Excel Farms.
CBRE’s Boo Harvey sold the property.
It is one of the largest aggregations in the northern Riverina region in NSW, and comprises 20,000 tonnes of grain and fertiliser storage, machinery sheds, workshops, plant and equipment.
Ballandry has an annual cropping program of 21,833 hectares and allows for farming efficiency and diversity, predominantly of wheat, canola, barley, lupins, field peas and vetch.
Annual rainfall is 424 millimetres.
Red loam and red sandy loam soils have been enhanced by bespoke management practices, such as the application of chicken manure to improve soil quality.
The new owner will benefit from the 2023 crop, which was expected to make back a significant portion of the purchase price within six months. Ballandry was exchanged on a walk-in, walk-out basis that included 45,457 Murrumbidgee Irrigation Delivery Entitlements.
Institutional investors looking for agricultural real estate are again finding a competitive advantage against family enterprises, as the return of more “regular” market conditions fails to temper demand for top-tier assets, according to LAWD’s Danny Thomas.
