A substantial Central West grazing property with a long history of successful Angus cattle breeding and handy proximity to Wyangala Dam will go under the hammer next month
“Greenhills” is a 1028 hectare (2541ac) property owned by Sydney businessman Simon Kurtz, who is selling as part of a rejig of his family’s investment strategies. The property has been listed for sale with Webster Nolan Real Estate in Sydney and James P. Keady in Cowra, and will go to auction in Sydney on October 23.
Mr Kurtz bought the property in 2007, ending just over 40 years of occupation by the Gordon family, who ran “Greenhills” as a breeding outstation of their “Glengowan” stud and commercial Angus operation at Newbridge.
Average rainfall is 750mm and the property is watered by a permanent creek.
The property had previously run sheep, for which the country is ideally suited, but the present owner chose to continue the Angus theme and has managed “Greenhills” as a breeding concern. Situated in rolling country near Woodstock and 40km from Cowra, “Greenhills” is also just nine kilometres north of Wyangala Dam and its various recreational attractions.
Mostly gently undulating, with granite-derived soils, the country on “Greenhills” ranges in elevation from about 700 metres to nearly 800m and incorporates three rocky knobs. Although now cleared for grazing, the property retains a good sprinkling of shade and shelter trees of yellow and white box, apple gum and kurrajong. Pastures are a mix of native grasses and long-established introduced grasses and clovers, last topdressed with single super in 2015.
The property is now conservatively stocked with 320 to 380 Angus breeders and their heifer replacements, progeny being sold as weaners at the autumn feature sales at nearby Carcoar. However, the property offers scope for lifting production, with about 850ha of the total area being suitable for pasture improvement by direct drilling or aerial seeding, and further topdressing.
Several paddocks also lend themselves to fodder cropping. Since its purchase by Mr Kurtz in 2007 the property has been managed by Steve Boyd, who would consider staying on with his son, subject to negotiations with a new owner. Average rainfall is 750mm and the property is watered by a permanent creek, 29 dams and a bore. Since May the property has recorded 220mm of rain and the country is now grassing-up, to the point where the cattle are no longer requiring hand-feeding.
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The main residence is an attractive weatherboard/fibro cottage of four bedrooms with separate lounge and dining rooms, front verandah, entertaining deck, slow combustion heating and air conditioning. It is complemented by a fully-enclosed three-bay garage and “man cave”, and a second cottage of four bedrooms now undergoing renovation. A fenced laneway delivers cattle from the 20 main paddocks to the Prattley steel cattle yards with three-way draft, Pro-Chute crush and scales, designed to handle 150 to 200 cows and calves.
Other working structures include a new, lockable 12m, x 20m machinery shed and workshop, other machinery and hay sheds and a three-stand shearing shed with timber yards. The offering has attracted strong inquiry, and bidding for “Greenhills” is expected within a range of $3.5-$4 million.