WHEN Andrew McClenaghan was considering purchasing the Mullaley property “Kairi” about eight years ago he did what many property hunters do: he spoke to the neighbours.
“We knew a couple of neighbours at the time, and one said it was the best place for sale in the Mullaley district, while the other said the property had very even soil types,” Mr McClenaghan said.
“And so one of the reasons that I was keen to buy it when I did was that the soil types of the property are all really even.”
He said those soft, loamy self mulching black soils were ideal for what they wanted to achieve out of the cropping property.
He said much of the appeal of the 546ha (1348ac) “Kairi” came down to the fact that it had a broad cropping scope: “if you know it, you can grow it on ‘Kairi’,” he said.
Indicative of this are the crops put in over the past eight years, which have extended to wheat, chickpeas, mungbeans, corn, sorghum, canola, faba beans and chick peas.
“We have never grown sunflowers on 'Kairi' but there is no reason why you couldn’t,” he said.
Andrew and Kaylene McClenaghan are selling to wind up their operations on “Kairi” after eight years of ownership but have yet to decide where their next farming venture will take them.
Mr McClenaghan said he would miss the property’s ease of management, and its sheer ability to grow, even under harsh seasonal conditions.
As an example, he said the past summer was a harsh and hot one, but the property still managed to yield about 10 tonnes of sorghum.
“You can still bank on growing a crop even just with a couple of irrigations,” he said.
“The ability to double and even triple crop on the irrigation is a feature,” he said.
He said two years ago they grew cotton followed by wheat after pupae busting, and then planted sorghum following the header.
There was one water for the wheat, which yielded 3.5 tonnes, and two waters for the sorghum at 8.4t.
“It is a very water efficient property.”
The property has a 389 megalitre groundwater irrigation allocation.
“Kairi” has been listed for private sale at $4 million with Andrew Street, Landmark Gunnedah.
The property is just four kilometres outside of Mullaley and has both dryland and irrigation cropping capacities.
Mr McClenaghan said much of the infrastructure was in place when they moved to the property, but since taking over ownership they had added two 100 tonne silos (which is supported by an existing 60t silo).
Structures on “Kairi” include the four bedroom farm house, irrigation infrastructure, machinery shed and the silos.
Contact Andrew Street, 0429 321 655.