New Forests, a global investment manager of nature-based real assets and natural capital strategies, has announced that its Australia New Zealand Landscapes and Forestry Fund (ANZLAFF) has acquired about half of McPhee Beef Farms in the NSW New England region.
Beef Farms is a large-scale, highly improved beef breeding operation located near Yarrowitch and Walcha. Aggregated over 30 years by the McPhee family, it is home to the Maria River Cattle Company Angus herd, which, crossed with full-blood Wagyu bulls, is a major supplier of high-quality F1 Wagyu.
The asset will be managed by New Forests, with specialist agricultural expertise provided by its related entity, New Agriculture. Using a whole-of-landscape approach, this partnership aims to optimise investment returns, potentially by registering carbon projects and introducing more regenerative agriculture practices.
New Forests will also look at management practices to reduce emissions across farm vehicles and review energy requirements from renewable sources
Covering about 8400 hectares of freehold land across two main holdings, Benditi Aggregation and Glen Eagle, the McPhee Beef Farms will be known as Benditi Pastoral Company. Existing staff and management will be retained under a new management company formed by the vendor to provide ongoing property management and maintain existing business relationships for Benditi Pastoral.
David Shelton, managing director, Australia and New Zealand, and global head of investments at New Forests, said the McPhee asset was a quality business which aligned perfectly with a whole of landscape approach.
“We can position investors to benefit from the best use of the landscape, while combining additional revenue streams such as carbon and biodiversity,” Mr Shelton said.
McPhee Beef Farms is ANZLAFF’s fourth Australian investment following the acquisition of three sites in the central tablelands of New South Wales, which were acquired as part of the fund’s Australian greenfields aggregation program.
In January 2025, New Forests announced the final closure of ANZLAFF (its fourth fund focussed on Australia and New Zealand), raising about $600 million from institutional investors from across Asia Pacific and Europe including Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power, Germany’s BVK and Sweden’s AP2.
In April, New Forests announced New Agriculture was looking to raise $750 million for the New Agriculture Landscape Opportunities Fund (NALOG) from institutional investors. This strategy takes a similar approach to the previous four funds, but with agriculture as the core focus, rather than forestry.
The transaction is subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval.
Editor’s note: Fixing carbon markets for beef and timber and the need for active land management methods will be a timely session at Timber Queensland’s conference, Doing Timber Business in Queensland – from paddock to prefab – in Brisbane this week.
CEO Jacquie Martin will outline Forestry Australia’s carbon market frameworks, aimed at incentivising best practice tree growing and forest management through both crediting genuine additional emissions abatement and adapting to new information or approaches as they emerge.
Silvopastoral systems, which combine natural forests or planted trees with pasture and livestock on the same land management unit, have gained popularity internationally in recent years as an environmentally friendly and economically viable land use.
In an aligned theme, the timber, beef, and carbon opportunities in Queensland will be the focus of an address by Dr Tyron Venn, Senior Research Fellow, School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, University of Queensland.
Dr Venn will assess farm forestry in detail. focusing on the design of carbon accounting systems, carbon trading schemes and other policy incentives that consider the needs and opportunities for small-scale forest growers.
Rounding out the session, Mick Stephens, CEO of Timber Queensland, will present the Queensland Future Timber Plan and discuss the opportunities for farm forestry. More than 120 delegates have registered for the conference and tours on September 2 and 3.
