Property

Picardy puts premium CQ country on market

Liz Wells, June 23, 2021

Picardy station at Dysart in Central Queensland is for sale. Photo: LAWD

ONE of Central Queensland’s (CQ) bigger dryland cropping properties has come to market with the listing of the 10,620-hectare Picardy at Dysart.

The vendor is Tiverton Agriculture Impact Fund (TAIF), which bought Picardy in 2017 from Augathella graziers the Purvis family for a reported $27 million.

Picardy is being offered for sale through LAWD agents Col Medway and Danny Thomas, and its next sale figure is expected to reflect the heady appreciation in land values of recent years, and Picardy’s impressive cropping credentials.

Under TAIF ownership, Picardy has added large-scale cropping to its enterprises, and has 7819ha of arable country with the balance highly suited to cattle breeding and finishing.

Mr Medway said Picardy has been growing sorghum as its summer crop, chickpeas over winter, and cover crops to build soil carbon in a regenerative agronomic system, and has come to the market so its owners can redeploy capital into another project.

He said one of Picardy’s stand-out features its its very good quality topsoil with an above average Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC).

“The soils are some of the best you’ll see, and with that Cation Exchange Capacity ranging from the mid 20s to the 60s, the amount of nutrient that soil can hold is significant,” Mr Medway said.

Potential to build further soil carbon is also seen as significant.

“Picardy has been using liquid fertilisers to reduce its carbon footprint, and that can be continued.”

Picardy has deep self-mulching soils, and the increasing soil carbon is a buffer against dry periods, with even a 1-per-cent increase in soil organic carbon allowing country to hold an additional 150,000 litres/ha of moisture in the top 10 centimetres.

Picardy is a cropping and cattle property being offered for sale by Tiverton Agriculture Impact Fund. Photo: LAWD

Mr Medway said the listing was already attracting strong interest from parties cropping in winter-rainfall areas.

“For anyone farming further south, there’s a low correlation of rainfall on offer here.

“There are a number of groups looking for genuine summer-rainfall country, and the cropping opportunities that presents, and Picardy is an unusual asset for CQ.”

The property’s field design, internal road network and location of filling points for spraying enhance operational efficiency, while grazing land is located along drainage lines and is securely watered and fenced.

Improvements include a new 5000-tonne grain shed, 306t tonnes of vertical grain storage, machinery shed, workshop, chemical shed, storage sheds and two sets of cattle yards.

Picardy is located 20 kilometres east of Dysart, and has a homestead and new workers’ quarters provides quality accommodation for owners and staff.

Horticultural and natural-capital assets in Victoria and southern New South Wales , including The Great Cumbung, are TAIF’s other assets.

Picardy is for sale by expression of interest closing July 22.

 

 

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