Era ends for pastoral giant

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Just a year ago Tasman Agriculture made claim to be the largest pastoral dairy farmer in the world. This week it is no more.

TasAg, as the 13-year-old company was known, delisted from the New Zealand Stock Exchange at the close of business on Wednesday.

The 73 South Island dairy farms it had at its peak are all sold.

Its assets in Tasmania will continue under a new company, Leander Holdings, soon to be renamed Tasman Farms.

TasAg was incorporated as a private company in 1988, the brainchild of founding shareholder and director Howard Paterson who, back from two years overseas, felt there were opportunities for NZ and Australia as low-cost producers as the Gatt (later WTO) Uruguay Round liberalised agricultural trade.

He banked on good prospects for dairying, in particular.

The company went public in 1992, following investment by Brierley Investments.

TasAg general manager Colin Glass said Mr Paterson and his co-investors initially bought primarily sheep and beef farms in Southland and Otago, many of them on the market because of the 1980s farming downturn.

At least 15 farms were bought in the first year, with subsequent purchases often coming in waves as dairy returns rose. The drystock farms were converted to top-producing dairy units in conjunction with fellow director and Canterbury farmer Max Duncan.

At its zenith, TasAg's NZ operation had 73 dairy farms - 61 of them converted from sheep and beef units - running 40,000 cows whose top production last year was 14.2 million kilograms of milksolids.

"As far as achieving on-farm performance in production and financial terms, I'd suggest that TasAg would be without peer," Mr Glass said.

The good performance was due to Mr Duncan's skill in turning sheep and beef farms into top dairy units within only a couple of years.

With suggestions that dairy farming is yet to reach its peak, why did TasAg cash up this year?

Brierley Investments was said to be behind the initial sales as it went for the profit in dairy properties whose values had been pushed up by the industry's excellent returns.

In August, South Island businessman and farmer Alan Pye bought the 66 per cent Brierley stake in TasAg for a net $46.3 million.

His Dairy Holdings onsold a 22 per cent share to another company, Southern Capital. Mr Pye and Mr Paterson were also buyers of a substantial number of the farms.