Brahman cattle being loaded on Abingdon Downs

STRONG cattle market conditions are reflected in Gunn Agri Cattle Fund’s financial year results announced this morning, with an EBITDA profit of $19.7 million for the 12 months to 30 June.

The fund’s manager, Gunn Agri Partners, reported a gross asset value of $225.5 million, up 8.6 percent for the year. Capital gain on the property portfolio since inception has been 23pc, after accounting for purchase price, transaction costs and post-acquisition capital expenditure.

Operating results were supported by a higher cattle market, with cattle sales for the year of $23.4 million, up 33pc year-on-year. The Cattle Fund achieved this by deferring cattle sales from previous periods when cattle prices were lower to the 2020 year, enabling both higher sales prices and volume, .

The Fund’s operating company, Cunningham Cattle Co, recording a herd of 59,120 at year’s end, valued at $67.7 million, up 38pc year on the previous year, reflecting a sharp increase in cattle prices.

Gunn Agri’s Cattle Fund the fund is now fully deployed, having held its final close in April 2018. With the major capital works program soon to be completed, it will commence distributions to its investors this year.

The growth in the Fund’s property portfolio had outperformed the market for pastoral land due to strategic development of watering points, fencing and productivity-enhancing infrastructure, the improvement of grazing productivity through land development and the transformation of pasture land to cropping in the portfolio’s southern properties, Gunn Agri said.

“The strong operating result has been delivered through a focus on operating assets at scale, optimised productivity and operating land at its highest value use,” it said.

The portfolio’s geographically diversified aggregations span a distance of 1500km from far north Queensland to the NSW border, including 1.056 million hectares of grazing land, 6600ha of cropping land and an additional 67,300ha of grazing land leased or agisted.

Current assets include:

• Abingdon Downs – 484,000ha breeding property north of Georgetown, in Queensland’s Gulf country, bought for more than $40 million in 2018
• Esmeralda Station – 406,000ha north of Richmond in the lower gulf, bought in 2016 for about $40m
• Katandra and Illalong – downs country properties totalling 52,000ha near Stamford used for backgrounding and growing, both settled in the second half of 2017.
• Goodar – The 18,000ha Goodar Station in southern Queensland was purchased by the fund in March 2016 provides added breeding, fodder production for fattening and cash cropping capability.
• Ballaroo, Ekari Park and Fairview – operated as the Maranoa aggregation.
• The fund also operate leased or agisted properties near St George, near Hughenden and Mt Surprise in Queensland.

Improved productivity of assets and the cattle herd has seen productivity gains such as weaning rates lifting from 50pc to 65pc.

“These gains were delivered through strong on-farm management, supported by a team of technical experts making critical changes to nutrition, genetics and herd management,” Gunn Agri said.

Capital improvements in water and fencing infrastructure had allowed better pasture utilisation and provided for wet season spelling to allow more productive perennial pastures to increase.