The nation’s only publicly-listed dairy farmer already has five dairy operations, one complementary calf-rearing and fodder farm and the Camperdown Dairy manufacturing plant in the south-west. But now it wants to buy another two or three farms by July 1.

ADFG director Adrian Rowley said the farms to be acquired would ideally run about 500 cows each.

“We have quite a few inbound inquiries from farmers interested in us coming and having a look, we are determining our priorities to pick two or three that fit our model best,” he said.

Most of the farms that ADFG has acquired so far have been in the Brucknell area.

Mr Rowley said the company wanted to lift its milk volume from its current level of 15-17 million litres to about 25 million litres to grow production of its Camperdown Dairy labels and supply ADFG contracts with Aussie Farmers Direct and Woolworths.

Mr Rowley said the company secured the additional $6.2 million after early investors took up loyalty options to buy more shares at a price below their current market value and Bell Potter securities, one of Australia’s largest stockbrokers, agreed to underwrite the remainder of the offer.

He said the extra capital would leave ADFG with “a strong balance sheet” even after it settled on its recent $11 million acquisition of Camperdown Dairy.

“Once the Camperdown dairy acquisition settles, we will only have a $4 million debt. That’s a 15 per cent debt to equity,” he said.

Mr Rowley said its Camperdown operation produced fresh milk, and Camperdown Dairy-branded yoghurt, organic butter in a joint venture and cream. 

The fresh milk contracts include a supply to China.

“That’s a reasonable suite. We will grow each of those,” Mr Rowley said.

He said ADFG’s ownership of the supply chain from dairy farms to the store shelf carried a lot of market clout in Asia.

ADFG shares started at 20 cents when it listed on the stock exchange in October 2014 but were trading at about 30 cents on Thursday. Mr Rowley has said about half of the investors in the Brisbane-based company were “mums and dads” with the other half institutional investors.