Buyer wants land rotated
South Canterbury farmer Alan Pye has bought six of Tasman Agriculture’s farms in Canterbury for $34.25 million.
Listed farm company Tasman Agriculture, two-thirds owned by Brierley Investments, sold another six farms at auction for $18.1 million last month, and sold one Mid-Canterbury farm and two in North Otago for $12.24 million, for a total $64.59 million on 15 farms.
The Pye family has interests in a number of South Island dairy units, and also has interests in agricultural properties in both Australia and New Zealand. The family operates one of the biggest potato-growing businesses in the two countries.
Mr Pye said today he intended to keep existing dairying operations going, with the same sharemilkers in place — but with a difference: he wants to put an area of each unit in potatoes every year, rotated with a cereal crop then regrassed for dairying. He said this would renew pastures for enhanced dairy production and increase the economic use of the properties.
The six properties he bought cover a total 1744ha. The sale price equates to $19,640/ha and, for the top property, $22,700ha. The farms produced 2.09 million kg of milk solids for the 2000 season.
Tasman Agriculture is now negotiating to manage the dairy operations on the Pyes’ behalf.