Article by Jon Condon, courtesy of Beef Central
15.05.2025
WHILE Gina Rinehart’s primary cattle industry investment vehicle, Hancock Agriculture has stolen all the headlines in recent years in expansion, a significant land investment on the NSW New England marks the start of a significant reformation for her second joint venture cattle vehicle, S Kidman & Co.
As part of the Kidman Premium beef brand project, S Kidman has officially taken ownership this week of 7000ha Jindabyne Station, 80km north of Inverell, under a deal valued at about $36 million, including some cattle. It’s the first property acquisition by Kidman in more than 20 years, the company confirmed today.
What is developing is a more distinct genetics and production path for both Mrs Rinehart’s cattle businesses:
- Hancock Agriculture is now devoted to high-end Fullblood Wagyu production on a vast scale, much of it being sold under the 2GR brand into international and domestic markets
- S Kidman is now a radically different business from what it was five or six years ago, shedding off many of its former northern Australian pastoral assets, to focus on Wagyu x Angus F1 production. (Kidman dislikes the words, ‘crossbred’ and ‘F1’, instead describing the cattle and the beef brand they supply as ‘Kidman Premium’. This week’s New England purchase is part of that process. The new Kidman Premium beef product (see logo at right) is designed to fit the large ‘middle market’ for beef lovers who want a large, tender, juicy steak, without the Fullblood Wagyu price. Cattle are fed around 200-220 days, moderating production cost, but still producing marbling scores of 3-6. The other key advantage is that primals and steak portion sizes are smaller – better aligned with modern consumer demands and restaurants desire for turnover.
Kidman has historically been a cattle company, but in combination, Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Ag and S. Kidman cattle businesses are now rapidly moving away from being ‘cattle businesses,’ to become ‘cattle and beef businesses.’
The Kidman company started recruiting for operations staff for Jindabyne on 6 May, having cleared Foreign Investment Review Board scrutiny over the purchase. The vendor was David Stewart, principal of Stewart Grain Trading, Inverell. Settlement was actually reached prior to the Federal election. FIRB got involved because of the value-threshold, and the fact that Kidman is 67c owned by Mrs Rinehart, and 33pc by Chinese minority partner Shanghai CRED.
While some cattle were involved in the property deal, Kidman has been discretely buying Angus breeders in recent months to stock the newly acquired property, in anticipation of matings to high-performance Wagyu Fullblood bulls later this year. Note today’s regular column from Chris Howie, referencing a ‘large pastoral order for heifers’ during April.
Jindabyne was sold under an off-market deal, attracting little prior attention. The holding has capacity for 3500 breeders, but is not adjoining other Rinehart-owned holdings on the New England, dedicated to Fullblood production. It’s hoped the holding will produce about 3000 F1 calves each year, all terminal.
The property is conveniently located close to Gunnee feedlot, and tow service kill provider John Dee near Warwick, across the Queensland border.
The cow herd will remain Angus based, with a few remaining Santa types being edged out for the Kidman Premium brand model.
Since about 2017 S. Kidman & Co has radically changed its pastoral portfolio, reducing exposure in Australia’s far north across the Kimberley/NT region. A total of ten holdings were dispersed in stages, totalling about 6600sq km of country.
Some of the capital from these sales was redeployed to purchase the 10,000ha Moolan Downs in Queensland’s Western Downs and the 8371ha Ottley Station in northern NSW from Packhorse Pastoral in 2023 for about $80 million combined.
Earlier this year Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture (separate from Kidman) spent $70 million buying the 10,000ha Wongaboori Station near Mendooran, about 90km northeast of Dubbo.
- As a bit of fun, Beef Central in 2017 pitched this concept for an S. Kidman beef brand leveraging off the company’s (then) 118 year history. That happened long before the company’s current move into vertically integrated livestock-meat production.
