Media Release - 12 March 2010

SOUTHLAND INVESTMENT A CASE OF QUALITY THAT PAYS

The latest Southland farm investment opportunity from MyFarm is an excellent example of quality that pays.

Brown’s Pastoral is an efficient dairy farm that requires little development and will deliver reliable returns to investors.

The 158 hectare (effective), 500-cow dairy farm is set in the highly productive central Southland region on Hokonui School Rd, 20 kilometres from Winton. It has been ideally developed for its size and location. The 40-bale rotary cowshed is in good condition with a concrete platform and a molasses feeding system. There is an adjacent feed and standoff pad and all the facilities are located centrally on the property; with walking distance to the most distant paddock no more than 900 metres.

An outstanding feature of ‘Brown’s is its comprehensive effluent system. This has been designed to catch all runoff from the cowshed, the feedpad, the standoff pad and the silage bunker through a 60 day storage pond and a ‘saucer’ which pumps into the pond. It has good storage capacity preventing the need to irrigate in wet weather, and a very good disposal system via a Larral trailer which can apply effluent at very low application rates.

MyFarm Director Grant Rowan says Browns is an investment in quality and efficient management rather than development. The primary focus of the business plan is to maximise cash returns to investors through achieving 1300 kgMS/ha from a grass-based farming system. Key aspects will be achieving cow condition of between 5 and 5.5 scores at calving; efficient grass utilisation and controlled use of supplement feeding and very tight fiscal management.

The purchase price for this investment equates to a competitive $33,527/ha (excluding Fonterra shares) or $32.75/kgMS (including Fonterra shares) on existing production. Eligible investors require the minimum investment of $250,000 to take up units in Browns Pastoral Limited Partnership. Grant Rowan says because Browns has been structured with debt only 21% of the investment it is able to generate good cash returns starting at 6%p.a after 12months.

“Brown’s will appeal to investors looking for simplicity and the security that comes from investing in a good quality, well developed farm bought at the right price at a time of rising payouts.”

MyFarm and its sister company, AGInvest now manage 11 farms in Southland on behalf of investors. With the ongoing expansion of its Southland business AGInvest recently employed a Southland based supervisor Terry Carr who is himself an experienced equity partner and former sharemilker. The farm supervision teamworks closely with equity managers and contract milkers on MyFarm syndicates focussing on achieving business goals and providing regular reporting and communication with shareholders.

“Our expansion in Southland also benefits investors through our ability to form preferred supplier relationships and in turn secure very competitive product sourcing prices, ” says Grant Rowan.

Investors interested in further information about Brown’s pastoral need to register their interest before April 10, 2010.