Clifton peanut farm closes

The Clifton clearing sale was a huge success

AFTER 50 years of peanut production, the Clifton Farming Company conducted its clearing sale over the weekend with 680 lots and 322 registered bidders.

Clifton Real Estate principal Peter Cooke said with ominous storm clouds pending, the only thing he could do was remind himself that “tremendous directors and staff of Clifton Farming Company were standing beside me”.

He said, as a relatively new owner of the real estate business, the sale of the seven blocks of land of the farming entity “was one of our first assignments”.

“The business management skills and the way Trevor Beutel and Howard Ebneter conduct themselves has inspired me as a business owner,” he said.

Mr Cooke said it was not only a successful day, but an emotional one.

“I had a text message from a long-standing friend at 5am to say ‘I’m showered, shaved and ready to attack’,” he said.

“Touching enthusiasm from Jason Fogarty, one of our auctioneers, considering Trevor’s wife Annie babysat Jason while Jason’s mother was one of many local women to be employed in the peanut grading shed.”

Mr Cooke said when speaking to Jamie Lindemann, a Clifton Farming Company employee of 24 years, he said: “In the 24 years I have worked here, there has never been a voice raised, never been an argument”.

Mr Cooke said all except a couple of lots were sold with prices very strong.

He thanked his staff, auctioneers and his wife, Jackie, for their work on a “tremendous day”.

Mr Beutel told the Warwick Daily News that his father had owned a peanut grading and shelling plant near Kingaroy before the pair made the move to Downs.

After five years of growing accustomed to the typical seasonal conditions, Mr Beutel said he and Mr Ebneter then started up their own grading and shelling processors.

Even though the industry was still going strong, Mr Beutel said the initial decision to close down was not an especially sad one.