Australia's biggest beef producer is about to grow even bigger.
Australian Agricultural Company has struck a deal to lease two big stations in central Queensland.
AACo already runs about 340,000 cattle across its 6.5 million hectares of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
The ASX-listed company will lease Comanche and Homehill near Rockhampton as cattle backgrounding and finishing properties.
Combined the two stations include 12,525 hectares of land.
AACo has entered a 10-year lease of Comanche and Homehill from the owner Rural Funds Management, for the Rural Funds Group.
AACo has been in the news with mining magnate Twiggy Forrest buying a five per cent stake in the company, worth $35 million.
Comanche, in the Glenroy district west of Rockhampton, includes 7599ha with a 9km frontage to the Fitzroy River.
It sold to Rural Funds Group at auction in 2018 for $15.7 million.
Comanche has three centre pivots and a feedlot comprising 10 feed pens and a milling complex with a commodity shed, 3500t silage pit and 1200t of grain storage.
The smaller Homehill station is also in the Fitzroy basin and has been leased for cattle operations with the Rural Funds Group saying it intended to develop some of the property to macadamia orchards over time.
In a statement to the ASX, AACo said pasture production on both Comanche and Homehill benefitted from high average annual rainfall and substantial water allocations.
This new lease country would boost AACo's capacity to background its premium Wagyu herd in reliable high performing country.
The leasing deal is still subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board and the Queensland government "given part of the property is leasehold subject to a lease from the state of Queensland".
The Rural Funds Group is Australia's largest publicly listed agricultural property trust.
It has 674,985 hectares of cattle breeding and background land and 150,000 head feedlot capacity with a listed value of $455 million.
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Chris McLennan
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
