VIDEO: Up close and personal with Aussie cattle

Australian Pastoral Funds Management recently took Agri Investor on a tour of northern Queensland cattle ranch Neumayer Valley Station – and talked about a number of core industry issues along the way.

As regular readers will be aware, Agri Investor was recently ‘down under’ for our Melbourne Forum (we’ll be making it an annual event for those of you who’ve been asking. But Chicago’s up next!).

While in Australia, we got out and about as much as possible – including a visit to Neumayer Valley Station, a cattle ranch in northern Queensland backed by Australian Pastoral Funds Management.

Part of the fun of the onsite visit was chatting with the firm’s chairman Alan Hayes, an industry veteran.

Hayes managed one of the region’s first agriculture investment funds, the Prudential/ Colonial/Commonwealth Bank Pastoral Fund, between 1989 and 2001, and played a leading role in setting up Macquarie’s Pastoral Fund. At Macquarie he was head of property strategy and chief executive of the fund’s subsidiary, Paraway Pastoral, between 2006 and 2009. After retiring from Macquarie, he founded Brisbane-based Australia Pastoral Funds Management, which is affiliated with groups including Equilibrium Capital, a US fund manager focused on sustainability and real assets, and Australian corporate advisory firm Pitt Capital Partners.

During the trip we spoke to Hayes about incentivising farm managers, mitigating drought and other challenges for the agri investment market including hiring farm managers and making ranch improvements.

Thanks to Hayes and all the Neumayer Valley staff for their hospitality.