An excellent discussion on investment in agriculture, on ABC Television’s Landline programme: http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2006/s2240230.htm
Directors on the Board of Management of Pastoral Companies used to consist almost entirely of board members who had a genuine hands-on (as in ‘hands dirty’) rural background. Unfortunately this has slowly been changing over recent decades, with the board members of most pastoral companies now coming from a straight finance/business background; or from an agricultural services sector such as stock and station agents. This has been to the great detriment of several of the biggest pastoral companies. Too often trying to starve a profit into a business, or squandering wildly in some areas and not enough in others, chasing fashions, not fully understanding the inevitable cycle of profitable and unprofitable seasons and years, not having a sufficiently long-term view, and not caring enough for the land.
Macquarie Pastoral Fund, launched by the Macquarie Bank in 2007, will be one to watch. With Managing Director Alan Hayes at the helm (founding CEO of Prudential Pastoral Co), and the likes of David Taylor (Pooginook sheep stud in the southern Riverina, NSW) and Alister McClymont (cattle station owner from northern Queensland), this board would surely have the most diverse, hands-on, experienced rural managers of any pastoral company board in Australia.
Tags: Pastoral companies