Australia’s largest dairy farm, Van Diemen’s Land Company (VDL) has been sold for a price in the region of A$250m (€163.7m).
The sale includes the 17,800 herd of cows which produce 7.66m kg of milk solids each year.
The buyer, Oncard International Limited, is to acquire the farmland, dairies, livestock, fodder, plant and equipment, intellectual property and water rights.
Over the past seven years, VDL has continued to produce record milk amounts going from 3m kg of milk solids a year to 7.66m kg of milk solids.
Some 25 farms make up VDL. The Woolnorth farm run 12 rotary dairies and one herringbone dairy.
The largest is an 80-bale rotary platform, which can milk up to 1,800 cows.
According to the VDL website, currently five of the dairies are run by variable order sharefarmers and eight are run as managed farms.
Since 2010 there has been a significant shift in milk supply patterns on Woolnorth with most of the dairy cows now calving in autumn.
The five Togari farm run herringbone dairies and the website states that three of the Togari farms are variable order sharefarmed and two are managed. All Togari farms calve in spring.
The seven remaining farms also operate herringbone dairies and two are run by variable order sharefarmers and five are run as managed farms, VDL states.
All of the dairy farms supply Fonterra, a leading multinational dairy company and the world’s largest exporter of dairy products.
