Six prized South Australian farms packaged into one to set spring sales alight

The sprawling Fairview sheep and cattle farm aggregation takes in 4326 hectares (10,689 acres) and is expected to attract national and corporate interest.

No price has been provided for the sale but access to underground water for irrigation and reliable 600mm average rainfall has seen some stellar farm prices paid in the Lucindale district in the past two years.

Buyers can take advantage of a two decade-long pasture improvement program to become totally self-sufficient in year-round stock feed requirements.

The big acreage produces all the hay and grain needed for the self-replacing cattle herd of Black Angus and Angus/Black Simmental cross cows, and predominantly Merino ewe flock utilising Suffolk and Dorset rams for its crossbred enterprise.

The farm manager and agents say recent stocking rates are modest compared with district averages.

Fairview's owners have operated in a conservative fashion and transitioned from a certified organic model to conventional farming a decade ago.

Fairview is the amalgamation of six contiguous properties the owner has accumulated in the past 25 years including Old Fairview, Lantara, Wombalano, Keys, Watson's and Mickan's.

Fairview farm manager Marc Dupree said there was "significant potential" to further increase the overall carrying capacity of the property through further pasture improvement and soil redevelopment.

"When I arrived at Fairview in 2004, the place was running over 14,000 sheep and around 1000 Hereford/Simmental cross beef breeders," Mr Dupree said.

"Since then we have dropped to an average annual stocking of around 25,000 DSE while some of the country has been out of production for our pasture and soil improvement projects.

"Now that most of the farm is back in production and with the potential to improve more pastures and ground, we are currently under-stocked and also have the potential to increase numbers significantly moving forward.".

Colliers Agribusiness national director Jesse Manuel said Fairview was an extremely well-balanced property offering a combination of open heavy flats, warmer hills grazing country, timbered grazing, with vast areas of improved pastures and several paddocks currently under crop for fodder production.

As well as returning to conventional methods since its transition from organic farming, management has also undertaken extensive soil redevelopment projects across the property in recent years.

Those projects included deep ripping sub-surface rock in the plains country for pasture roots to access clay, as well as claying the lighter hills country to increase moisture retention capacity of those soils.

The improved areas are sown to a mixture of chicory, ryegrass, phalaris, clovers and fescue, and there is currently 130ha planted to barley for hay and grain production.

Fairview also has more than 1000 megalitres of water entitlements, with 25ha developed for flood irrigation.

Colliers' Tim Altschwager said a property of the calibre of Fairview, with its excellent balance of country-types and immense versatility, not to mention its significant scale in such a tightly held location, is likely to attract significant interest.

The aggregation now incorporates extensive laneways with well-made roads servicing the majority of the property, along with excellent fencing and paddocks largely fenced into the three different country, Mr Altschwager said.

The water supply at Fairview comprises mostly solar and electric bores, with a handful of windmills still in use, with underground water pumped to header tanks throughout the property and reticulated to troughs.

Improvements across the aggregation include four homes, three shearing sheds, extensive hay and grain storage, multiple sets of sheep and cattle yards, large workshop, horse stables and implement sheds.

Mr Manuel said Fairview offers an appealing opportunity for purchasers to acquire a large scale South East sheep and cattle grazing property, not to mention the premium location, access to markets and reliable average annual rainfall of around 600mm.

"Properties of the scale and calibre of Fairview are extremely tightly held in the South East, and the announcement of its impending sale is an important event in southern Australia's rural property market," he said.

For more information on the expressions of interest campaign for Fairview contact the agents at Colliers - Jesse Manuel on 0421 550242 or Tim Altschwager on 0408 814699.