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Interest in Harts farms but no sales

Rural News
Interest in Harts farms but no sales

Prospective buyers have shown interest in a cluster of 29 Graeme Hart-owned dairy farms around Tokoroa, but real estate agents are yet to close any deals. Carter Holt Harvey spokesman Ross Townshend told the Waikato Times there had been interest in four of the 29 farms which are on the market through Bayleys and PGG Wrightson for a combined $224.5 million. Mr Townshend's comments came after only 47 farms sold in January, about a quarter of the norm, only seven of which were dairy farms. The CHH farms, offered for between $5.1m and $10.4m each, support a total of 20,000 cows and produce 6,641,200 kilograms of milksolids. The Waikato Times understands an offer from a Chinese syndicate was rejected. The farms had also attracted the interest of a New Zealand and overseas syndicate planning a new milk-processing plant. Mr Townshend said CHH had created the farms and put them into production between June 2008 and June 2009 with the intention of a later sale. "We developed the farms with a view to selling them and we are just carrying it though," he said. The farms, which ranged from 218 hectares to 726ha, occupied high-yielding dairy farming land which had been converted to forestry in the 1920s to create jobs in the Depression. "This land is too good to be growing trees. It was just growing trees as an accident," Mr Townshend said.

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