Corporate and family farming interests alike are running their rulers over “Glencoe Aggregation”, a sizeable sprawl of prime farming country between Narrabri and Moree.
The 2592 hectare (6404ac) Bellata district property is owned by Andrew and Megan Morrice whose home property is “Maundyn” at Quirindi.
It was put together as an expansionary move, starting in 2015 with the purchase of “Glencoe” and followed by the purchases of “Blairmore” and “Corella” (both previously part of “Boolcarrol”). Their original intention had been to relocate from Quirindi to the new country and expand further, but due to their inability to acquire more country nearby, they have now decided to consolidate at “Maundyn”.
“Glencoe Aggregation” is therefore to be offloaded and it has been listed for sale with Paul Thomas and James Thomas of Landmark Harcourts Narrabri. The asking price is not being publicly disclosed, but is understood to be in keeping with recent district sales of comparable land, which have ranged from around $6000/ha to $6500/ha ($2400-$2600/ac).
At the upper end of this spectrum was the 904ha “Boggy Creek”, sold late last year and separated by just one other property from “Glencoe Aggregation”. Situated 20 kilometres south-east of Bellata and 48km north of Narrabri, “Glencoe Aggregation” is a holding of open, level plains country of black and grey self-mulching soils. The property is ideally suited to year-round cropping and as such, more than 98 per cent of the total area is under cultivation in four main fields.
Ideally suited to wideline machinery and minimum tillage, the large and evenly-shaped paddocks are configured to handle straight runs of 3-4km, making for fast and efficient machinery usage.
Crops grown under the present operation include wheat, barley, durum, chickpeas and sorghum, and an area of 1216ha is now fallowed for 2018 winter crop with stored moisture from the 90-100mm of rainfall received since early January.
Average rainfall is about 600mm and the property is connected to the capped and piped Millie bore scheme, which supplies stock water to 16 poly tanks and troughs. For a serious investor, “Glencoe Aggregation” offers the attraction that it is not over-capitalised, yet it comes with quality working improvements equal to the property’s present needs.
These include a new ABC grain shed of 5000 tonnes capacity with concrete floor and 6m concrete apron, a new three-bay lockable machinery shed, three 250t Kotzur silos with aerators and two older-type grain sheds. Although now oriented towards cash cropping, the property is well suited to cattle breeding, fattening or backgrounding, and has steel cattle yards to handle 200 head.
Because the owners are only in spasmodic residence, the accommodation is limited to a two-bedroom, air-conditioned timber cottage. An older three-bedroom home on “Blairmore” is unused. The property is also handy to grain and pulse receival facilities at Edgeroi and Bellata.
