Ann: Webster announces purchase of Kooba Aggregation, page-2

How do you all read this announcement? Does it suggest that WBA will be planning to plant walnuts on the new property, but in the good water allocation years also (under consultation from AFF) be planting annual crops (through row cropping) for additional income?

Here's some info on Ag Reserves Australia, who we've purchased the new properties from. This could give some indication of what crops WBA / AFF could be planning to plant annually.

http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/...ngs/36944-mormons-list-nsw-riverina-farm.html

http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/pr...arm-in-120m-deal/story-fnkerdg1-1227089690739

There are also religious organisations that own rural property. Top of the list is Ag Reserves Australia Ltd – a company fully owned by the Utah (U.S.A.) based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – commonly known as Mormons. In addition to rural properties in the U.S., they also own farms in Canada, Mexico and Argentina. In Australia they primarily own Riverina irrigation farms – the massive Kooba Station and Benerembah at Darlington Point (south of Griffith), Bringaree at Carathool and Booberoi at Euabalong. The properties run purebred Wagyu cattle and sheep; and grow a vast range of crops – rice, corn, horticultural crops, stonefruit, olives, nuts and others. In a BRW article written in late June 2006, journalist Adele Ferguson says that the media spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Stephen Coy, said that they decided ‘not to take the religious exemption status for the business it operates, on the grounds that it is a global religion and does not get such exemptions overseas.’ He said Ag Reserves was not making a profit at that time but will pay tax when a profit is made – this may of course been the case since the article was written in 2006. (This is in contrast to the Seventh Day Adventist-owned business Sanitarium; (based in Maryland, USA) which has charitable tax exemption status; competes directly with tax-paying Australian food manufacturing companies, eg the makers of Vita Brits; and is presumably able to export tax-free earnings back to the parent company in America.)
http://www.fionalake.com.au/blog/ne...pastoral-companies-stations-properties-owned/