QIC moves into agricultural investment with NAP

NAPCo’s founding largest shareholder, the Foster family, retain a 20 per cent interest in the company.

NAPCo is one of Australia’s oldest and largest agricultural enterprises covering 5.8 million hectares across Queensland and the Northern Territory and approximately 178,000 head of cattle.   

This is one of the most significant investments by Australian superannuation funds into unlisted Australian agriculture. 

QIC, a Queensland‐based, global fund manager serves institutional investors such as Australian superannuation funds and offshore pension funds. 

Typical QIC investments bring together Australian and global funds  to invest in “real” assets with long life spans such as retail shopping malls and infrastructure including energy distribution facilities, ports, airports and toll roads, and then add value through active management over a period of years. This is another example of QIC working with investors to source domestic and global capital, which can then be used to develop and grow attractive Australian sectors. 

The NAPCo investment has been made possible by: 

My old mate Peter Taylor advised me that he received the accompanying  photo from his daughter Peta who is currently travelling with her husband in Southern Patagonia at the bottom of South America and he thought it interesting that in the mid 1960’s New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Company (NZL) had a contract under the then Stud Stock manager of New South Wales Rusty Taylor to ship a herd of breeding age stud Poll Hereford heifers with a consignment of working age stud Poll Hereford bulls to Tiera del Fuego.

The shipment was marshalled at the Flemington sale yards where they were inspected and inoculated by the veterinary officers of the day prior to being transported to the docks and loaded on board a ship for their destination. Peter said “I remember working at the yards in my teens with Rusty (Dad) and his capable staff members during weekends helping to prepare the stock for their voyage.

It is my belief that this beautiful Poll Hereford bull would be a descendant of that original herd which commenced the British Breed Beef Industry of Southern South America.”

Peter added “I thought that this may be of interest to your readers to know of some of the history of Australia’s contribution to the South American beef industry.”

By the way, luckily for me, Rusty Taylor was also my boss for a time and great mate in New Zealand Loan and later Dalgety in Brisbane.

Meat & Livestock Australia reported more than 25mm of rain fell across parts of the eastern states this week, triggering an immediate halt and reversal in the downward Eastern Young Cattle Indicator (EYCI) trend of recent months.

Stimulated by tighter cattle availability and refreshed producer confidence, the indicator jumped 24.25¢ from last week, to close Thursday at 570¢/kg cwt.

Some of the biggest weekly increases in EYCI-eligible cattle were at Armidale (46¢), Dalby (21¢), Singleton (25¢), CTLX Carcoar (30¢), Gunnedah (35¢), Inverell IRLX (35¢), Roma Store (27¢), Scone (23¢) and Dubbo (20¢). Very few markets traded lower than the previous week.

Interestingly, despite a similar amount of rainfall over the past week in NSW and Victoria, the NSW markets generally responded better, assisted by a much larger reduction in yardings.

In a similar fashion, the Western Young Cattle Indicator (WYCI) increased 4¢, to finish at 615¢/kg cwt. It has been an unusually wet start to the year for southwest WA, in contrast to the dry season across most of the eastern states, which is one of the main factors behind the western indicator sitting above its eastern counterpart.

The weeks ahead will more than likely see restocker confidence for young cattle remain and availability will become tighter. However, the longevity of this positive outlook will hinge on whether or not the encouraging three month rainfall outlook for southern Australia comes to fruition.

It is always good to catch up with David Brook, Adria Downs, Birdsville. David said they had very welcome falls over the weekend, with Birdsville registering 50mm. Also properties in the SW corner had welcome falls, with Cordillo registering 81mm and Nappamerrie 107mm.

However, the falls were lighter towards Boulia.

David also said the Annual Birdsville Camp Draft was held Saturday and Sunday. They managed to get away with the events on Saturday, but some of the finals were called off on Sunday due to the rain.

Anyway, it is great to see these falls around Birdsville at this time of the year, particularly after a dry summer.

I was saddened to hear of the passing of an old mate, Arthur Edwin “Mick” Maloney, 84 years. Brisbane based Mick was a well known identity throughout the country as he was a dedicated and long term employee of Southern Cross Machinery P/L.

His funeral is today, Thursday, at St Fabian’s Church, Yeerongpilly, at 10am.

Our deepest sympathy to his wife Edna and children and children-in-law, Peter and Felicity; Greg and Nicola; Lyn and Brett; Julia and Peter, Michael and Helen and extended families..

Andrew Moore advised me of the passing of his Dad, Rodney Moore. Roderick (Rod) Moore passed away in Casino, NSW on 22nd April after a short battle with cancer. Rod was a cattle buyer for Borthwicks in Central Queensland during the 1970’ and 80’s based in Biloela and later Rockhampton. He transferred to Casino in 1985 and ran the Borthwicks kill there. During the 1990’s he owned and operated a small beef processing company in Casino. He worked later on various projects in the beef industry and was always passionate about improving the industry. His insights and knowledge will be missed.

Our sympathy to Rod’s wife Melva and children, Nathan in Brisbane, Georgia Seeney in Longreach, and Andrew in Warwick and their extended families. They also have six grandchildren.