Landcorp buys three farms in Manawatu

Photo / Christine Cornege

State-owned Enterprise Landcorp Farming NZ has bought 1270ha of agricultural land near Feilding and plans to spend millions upgrading it.

Terry Patching and Stuart Sutherland of Property Brokers said they sold the State business the three big farms owned by Tawera Land Company, in liquidation and receivership.

Peter Barnett, company rural manager for Property Brokers at Palmerston North, said the Manawatu land sale was significant because such big blocks were involved.

Property Brokers said the farms were used for intensive cropping, sheep and cattle finishing. Each of the places has stock handling facilities but no houses. Patching and Sutherland said the sales campaign drew wide interest throughout New Zealand. More than 50 groups of buyers looked at the farms, with 30 tenders submitted, they said.

Chris Kelly of Landcorp said the SOE had big plans for the farms which he described as undeveloped.

"We will spent a number of millions of dollars upgrading the farms, bringing store lambs there and finishing them," he said.

The three properties are a 329.8ha block, 547.2ha and 392.8ha.

Kelly said all the blocks were within about 20 minutes' drive of Feilding. The purchase price is confidential.

Kelly said the SOE bought two to three farms annually.

Landcorp was somewhat depleted for land to bring store lambs to finishing, he said, because it had made a big drive into the dairy sector in the last six to seven years.