Media Release
11.11.2013
State-owned farmer sells up substantial dairy operations
State-owned farming entity Landcorp Farming Limited is selling one of its bigger North Island dairying units.
Landcorp’s Wharere Road farm near the Bay of Plenty township of Te Puke is a 404 hectare block which has been milking
more than 1300 cows – producing more than 500,000 kilograms of milk solids at its peak.
However, with the company now focusing more on developing the capacity of new dairying units, the lush Te Puke farm has
been place on the market for sale through Bayleys Tauranga in a tender process closing on December 4.
Bayleys Tauranga rural sales manager Simon Anderson said the Wharere Road farm encompassed five blocks operating as two
individual units. Tenders could be made for purchasing any of the five blocks individually, in any combination, or as
one combined portfolio.
Nationwide, Landcorp Farming Limited runs 1.6 million stock units on 137 properties – encompassing sheep, beef, deer and
dairy farms.
In the company’s 2013 report, chairman Bill Baylis said Landcorp was particularly focused on growing productivity at its
Wairakei operations near Taupo – with the intention of adding 4500 more hectares and seven new milking sheds in that
region alone.
“The approach means the clustering or amalgamation of properties to unlock economies of scale and development
opportunities.”
As a stand-alone location, the Te Puke farm is somewhat isolated from Landcorp’s other ‘cluster’ locations. The combined
Wharere Road unit has a July 2011 rateable valuation of $11.14million.
Infrastructure and buildings on the farm block include:
• Five milking sheds – encompassing a 34-aside herringbone shed, three 20-aside herringbone milking sheds, and an
18-aside herringbone milking shed. All sheds were built in the1980s.
• Six homes – five of which are three-bedroom residences, and one four-bedroom dwelling.
• A consented two pond effluent system on each farm.
and
• An array of enclosed hay barns, half-round barns, calf sheds, implement sheds and workshops.
“Originally when Landcorp bought the Wharere Road land, there were five individual farms. These were combined into two
‘super-units’ run by individual share milkers. The option for any potential purchaser is to maintain the operation under
its current format and purchase the whole farm, or revert it back down into smaller productive units,” Mr Anderson said.
The farm is supplied from a metered district water scheme to all homes, sheds and troughs. Boundary fencing is
predominantly post/batten and wire fencing, while the paddocks are subdivided by electric fencing. Access around the
farm is via
well-formed races. A full fertiliser history of the farm has been kept, as have rainfall records of between 1300mm -
1500mm per annum.
Tenders close on December 4.
ENDS