$54m Southland dairy business up for sale

Kees Zeestraten has put a Southland farming business up for sale with a price tag of $54 million, aiming to put the funds into an even bigger dairy venture.

Kees Zeestraten, a dairy farmer who helped drive the push for intensive farming in Canterbury's Mackenzie country, has put a Southland farming business up for sale with a price tag of $54 million, aiming to put the funds into an even bigger dairy venture.

The Amberley-based farmer is listed as sole shareholder of Southern Sights Ltd, which owns five adjoining dairy farms near Winton.

The properties cover a total of 1,207 hectares and produced 1.48 million kilograms of milk solids from 3,620 cows in 2013/2014.

The properties are for sale as a group or individually, according to PGG Wrightson Real Estate.

Zeestraten's interests include Five Rivers Ltd, a company that had proposed development of the Mackenzie basin for shed-based dairy farms, arguing that they had a lower environmental footprint than conventional pastoral farming, with its irrigation demands.

Five Farms had plans to build seven dairy farms near Omarama, keeping up to 7000 cows in cubicle stables for much of the year.

"I'm not getting out of the industry," Zeestraten told BusinessDesk.

"We're looking at placing the equity in another property which we already own."

He declined to make further comment.

A promotional document from Southern Wide Real Estate says Southern Sights is farmed by two of Zeestraten's sons.

He is selling the farms to focus on his next venture near Lake Ohau, the brochure says.

The majority of cows farmed at Southern Sights have been wintered on the 7,000 hectare property the family now intend to develop for dairying, it said.