One of the largest irrigated cropping concerns in the Riverina is back in play, with the listing for sale by CBRE of historic “Cobran”, fronting the Murrumbidgee River east of Hay.
Today a holding of 14,149 hectares (34,948ac) including 5748ha of developed flood irrigation, “Cobran” is owned by an offshore investor through the US-based Westchester agricultural management group.
Westchester purchased the property, for which it reportedly paid around $18 million when it was a somewhat larger 17,200ha, in 2012 from Twynam Agriculture. Parcels of grazing land have since been sold to neighbouring landholders.
It was Twynam who developed “Cobran” for intensive row-cropping, after buying the property at a Hay receivers’ auction in 2002 in the wind-up of John Elliott’s failed Australian Rice Holdings.
Cotton production over the past four seasons has totalled more than 124,000 bales.
When fully developed by Elliott and partners for rice-growing in the 1990s, “Cobran” was Australia’s biggest rice farm, with capacity to grow 7000ha.
The property was a much larger 31,219ha when bought by Twynam, but reduced to just over half in 2004 by the sale of a grazing section as “North Cobran”. Twynam developed 2300ha of the former rice country for irrigated cotton, also growing canola, wheat and maize, before divesting it of river water entitlements with its controversial $300 million sale of water rights in 2009 to the government.
The present owners have bought back river licences, and with groundwater the property now has more than 18,000 megalitres of entitlements, providing a high level of production security.
Investment in water has been matched by investment in pumping and delivery infrastructure (more than 114,000ML pumped over the past four seasons) and 10,600ML of on-farm storage capacity.
All of this underpins the property’s cotton program, which in the coming season will see some 3000ha planted to irrigated cotton, with a production target of 36,000-plus bales. The property offers scope for an estimated further 2500ha of irrigation development, or for conversion to a horticultural enterprise (subject to approvals).
Cotton production over the past four seasons has totalled more than 124,000 bales, or around 31,000 bales a year for an average yield of more than 12 bales/ha.
The property is being offered for sale with a three-year lease attached to Auscott Ltd, which operates a new cotton gin at Hay. Structural improvements include a seven-bedroom homestead beside the river, machinery sheds, workshops, grain storage and staff accommodation.
READ MORE:
Like some other large cotton-growing concerns, “Cobran” made its name originally with another fibre altogether, as a famous Merino woolgrowing and stud property. It came into being in 1926 when the Mesdames Sims and Cooper, who owned the original “Cobran” property and stud near Deniliquin, were forced by closer settlement to move elsewhere.
They selected a 32,000-acre (12,800ha) portion of the huge Illilawa Station adjoining “Uardry” and moved the stud to the new property, which they named “Cobran”.
The homestead portion of their former Deniliquin property was later renamed “Old Cobran” and under McDonald family ownership became home to the internationally renowned Old Cobran Poll Merino stud. Expressions of interest close on November 30.
