Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture purchases Split Rock Dairy

Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has added another asset to her reshaped rural property portfolio, snapping up a 1980ha northern NSW dairy.

Hancock Agriculture has purchased the Split Rock Dairy, located north of Manila near Tamworth in northeast NSW, the company announced in a statement.

Details of the off-market sale remain confidential, but it is understood the Split Rock Dairy property will complement other backgrounding properties within the Hancock Agriculture portfolio.

Spilt Rock Dairy, to be named Buena Vista, was owned in an equity partnership which included three investors and Australian dairy industry champion Robert Cooper.

The original farm was owned by three brothers, before they and Mr Cooper started a new company 10 years ago.

Spilt Rock Dairy was expanded during their tenure from 1400ha to 3230ha, increasing cow numbers from 400 to 1200. The property includes irrigated and dryland cropping with 366ha under irrigation via 11 pivots.

“The purchase of this property is consistent with the Hancock Agriculture strategy of acquiring properties to support growth in our annual turn-off of 2GR branded Fullblood and Pure Bred Wagyu. We thank the vendor for facilitating the sales process and we wish them well,” Hancock Agriculture said in a statement.

Tallis Miles, The Weekly Times, 28 November 2023.

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