In a show of confidence in the wool industry, NSW-based woolgrowers Ian and Camilla Shippen have bought the huge 5900-hectare livestock property, Mount Fyans at Dundonnell, north of Mortlake.
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The Shippens bought the renowned property in a deal worth approximately $37 million from Harmony Agriculture and Food Company (HAAFCO), which bought the property in 2016.
Harmony describes itself as an Australian business that is jointly owned by Australian and Chinese investors.
Mr Shippen said the family had first looked at Mt Fyans when it was on the market previously, when it was searching for a place to achieve a long-held desire to establish a large-scale wool operation.
This time, the timing was right and the Shippens expect to soon have their own sheep on the property.
They plan to establish a “simple woolgrowing operation”, taking Merino wether lambs from their NSW properties to Mt Fyans and running them for three to four years and then selling them.
While it is planned to be a woolgrowing/wether operation, they will also take opportunities to trade some cattle.
Mr Shippen said it was an exciting time, but there was a lot of work and a whole new learning curve ahead.
“It gives us diversity within the industry with prime lambs at Wagga Wagga, NSW, where our manager Derk Meurs has done an outstanding job of making the property a profitable sheep operation, we’ve got our breeding operation at Moulamein and now woolgrowing down south,” he said.
After years of frustration of seeing their high quality Merino wether lambs sold for slaughter, the Mt Fyans operation will provide the chance to run Merino wethers as wool cutters for up to four years.
Mr Shippen said there were a lot of challenges in running Merino wethers in high rainfall areas.
However he backed their breeding and selection, overseen by wool classer Bob Simson for 20 years, to be able to handle the conditions.
“All our surplus sale ewes go to high rainfall places and it’s up to our classing to make sure we don’t have too much condition in our wool so it can handle the higher rainfall,” he said.
The business is very much a family operation, with children Will, Emma and James all keen to come back into the business.
The purchase of Mt Fyans was another part of the succession plan to ensure there was sufficient scale in the operation to support all family members.
