Organic Echuca-Moama region farm listed for auction

The auction of the Moama district farming property, Kinrara has been listed for auction.

Set at 118 Ripper Road, about 30 kilometres north of Moama-Echuca, the property is 280 hectares (693 acres).

Agents expect it will attract interest because it has been certified organic by the accredited NASAA (National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia) whose standard ensures organic integrity from paddock to plate.

Currently, organically accredited products such as hay, grains or pulse crops are selling for double normal market rates and there is also significant supply chain demand for sheep or cattle that are organically produced.

The Kinrara property will be auctioned by Rodwells Ruralco Property on February 22.

Rodwells Ruralco selling agent Andrew Miller says that the property is being offered on behalf of the Hehir family who have held the property since 1998, but had leased it for eight years prior to purchase.

They undertook the three-year long process to secure the NASAA organic accreditation.

“The vendors have dairy farming interests in northern Victoria and have principally been using the Kinrara property to produce supplementary pasture products under irrigation to support their organic milk dairy production, as well as rearing young stock and wintering dairy cows,” said Miller. 

“But they have recently secured another holding that adjoins their home farm, so that Kinrara has become surplus to their needs, hence its offer for auction sale.”

Miller says that the formalisation of organic production of both dairy products and livestock confers significant value to an accredited farm like Kinrara.

As well this property is suitable for cropping and would also support sheep or cattle production as it has significant infrastructure in place.

Kinrara will be offered with the successful purchaser having the first option to purchase at market rates the significant water right of 666 megalitres of NSW General Security water which is sourced from the Moira channel which adjoins a boundary of the holding. 

The water entitlement is considered double the normal district farm entitlements and resulted from the consolidation of two local property entitlements many years ago.

In addition, there is also an 8 megalitre Stock & Domestic water right.

During their ownership the vendors have developed a high capacity and high flow flood irrigation system over about 211 hectares. 

The further land area of 60 hectares is used for dryland grazing and is mostly suitable for cropping.

The holding is subdivided into nineteen paddocks, all electric fenced, with an internal gravel laneway system that facilitates year-round access and enables operational efficiency even in the wettest winters.

The property has a 40 megalitre capacity turkey nest dam which can be gravity filled from the Moira channel system with all runoff from irrigation recycled back to the sumps at the dam m where it can be reused.

The water resources are also used effectively with two-inch poly pipe mains to concrete troughs in every paddock served by an electric pressure pump. 

There are dams in 10 of the paddocks while numerous box trees were retained for stock shelter and to enhance the presentation of the farm.

The property benefits from all-weather access while there are stock handling facilities of a shearing shed, new cattle yards and loading ramp beneath a very large Moreton Bay fig tree.

Buildings include an original unused homestead, with a transportable two bedroom living unit with appropriate services on the holding.

Three phase power is on the property which makes it attractive to intensely irrigated horticultural pursuits such as tomatoes or alternative tree crops.

The property is rectangular in shape with good road frontages on two boundaries.

Prior to outright acquisition in 1998 by the Hehir family the property was owned for many decades by the late Stan Jasper who with his wife lived modestly on the property and conducted a low impact farming regime, principally sheep and later to agist dairy cattle.

With an aversion to cultivation or chemical use, this historic approach facilitated the conversion to organic. 

Miller notes that: “strong swards of sub clover and ryegrass have been managed over the last twenty years with a small cropping area, most recently of high yield vetch that was harvested in the 2018 spring. 

“Lucerne has also been established on the irrigated pastures after cropping and grown as summer green feed without irrigation to supply a large flush of autumn feed following the seasonal break or after further irrigation.

“The success of the lucerne is put down to roots beyond three metres reflecting the high value of the soils under the organic regime.”

The Hehir family has typically run 300 to 450 head of dairy cattle on Kinrara over the winter and cut 2,000 bales of clover dominant hay in most years. 

Surveys have established the organic matter of Kinrara’s soils in the range of 3.17 to 4.65% that is approximately double that of district farms. 

Miller adds he has assessed the land value as in the region of $1,350 per acre.

“Nothing like this holding has come on to the market in this district in recent years nor is there anything of similar productivity expected to become available.”