Farm of year winners hold field day
“The property is 890ha in total but a recent mapping showed it to be effective for 785ha, which gives a stocking rate of 9.9. One-third of the land is flat, one-third is easy rolling and one-third is steep.
“We run 3700 ewes, 1000 hoggets, calving 285 Angus cows, have 265 yearling cattle and winter 50 R2s. The annual rainfall is between 2100-2200mm per year. In six weeks last spring we got 490mm of rainfall. It comes with its challenges.
One of the judges for the competition, Sean Stafford of MCI and Associates, has been involved with it since 2013. He has been helping people raise capital for equity partnerships, business advisory, governance, succession and deal structuring.
“I’ve been judging the final rounds since 2013 and had the pleasure of seeing a lot of good businesses,” he said. “The Fouhys is certainly one of them. From a judging perspective, this is a phenomenal business in terms of its financial performance with 5-6 per cent return on capital.
“Lambing is consistent in the mid140s and calving at 95 per cent. The physical performance is underpinning financial performance and is extremely consistent.
“A very high performing level of EFS is $750 over four years, which highlights the level they are performing at. We got really excited as judges to see a low-impact livestock model, friendly for the land-use classes, while generating a phenomenal financial performance.
“Inter-generational thinking over 100 years of farming history is evident. Shaun and Fiona’s entire farming philosophy is shaped around that theme. I’ve seen a lot of growth in their capability over the last 7-8 years,” he said.