Farm Online | 16 February 2026US pension fund behind major sheep farm buy with dairying the new focus
By Chris McLennan
After several years on the sales market, one of Tasmania's premier sheep properties has been sold to a US-backed company with dairying on its mind.
40 South Dairies, a dairy farming joint venture business located in Tasmania's north-west, has emerged as the buyer of the Peltzer family's prized Logan estate (2683 hectares, 6630 acres) near Launceston.
Selling agents brought Logan to market in 2024 with a suggested selling price of about $50 million and the property has been sold for around $40m.
40 South Dairies is a dairy business created in 2018 with the backing of the Laguna Bay investment group and the Washington State Investment Board.
Laguna Bay was founded in 2010 under founder and managing director Tim McGavin, is Queensland based, with financial support of the Washington State Investment Board which tipped in $350 million to Laguna Bay's fund raising in 2023.
The Washington State Investment Board manages more than $US230 billion for public employees such as teachers, school employees, law enforcement officers, firefighters and judges.
US pension fund behind major sheep farm buy with dairying the new focus
Laguna Bay bought eight dairy farms at Smithton in Tasmania in 2018.
It established 40 South Dairies with Ashley and Cherrylyn Ker to run them.
One of Laguna Bay's most spectacular farm deals was back in 2013 with the $211 million purchase and long term lease-back agreement with Olam International, for 12,000ha almond groves in northern Victoria.
The groves produce more then three per cent of the world's almonds with a water holding of 89,085 megalitres, still the biggest privately-owned water holding in Victoria.
The orchards were later offloaded for a big profit to Canadian pension giant Public Sector Pension Investment Board in 2019.
It sold the big cropping operation Woorndoo in western Victoria back in 2021 for $70m to two farming families.
The Peltzer family in 2024 offered their Logan holding, blue ribbon grazing country about 20 minutes from Launceston in the north of the state.
Logan is an irrigated grazing operation with dryland cropping as well as at Evandale in the Northern Midlands.
Farm production is boosted by 602ha of centre pivot irrigation which is gravity fed.
To support the irrigation, large catchment dams have been constructed with 2200 megalitre capacity with an additional 600 megalitre water licence.
US pension fund behind major sheep farm buy with dairying the new focus
More land has been earmarked on the farm for irrigation development.
LAWD senior director Danny Thomas said properties of this scale rarely came to market in the tightly held Evandale district.
"Logan has only had three owners since it was first settled in the early 1800s and the Peltzer family, who have been custodians since 1950s, have developed it into a very successful and progressive prime lamb operation," Mr Thomas said.
"Given Logan's highly secure water, fertile soils and excellent climatic conditions, the property could lend itself to a broad spectrum of agricultural pursuits including intensive cropping, horticulture, grazing and dairying."
A standout feature is the entirely gravity fed irrigation system, with a network of strategically placed dams, optimising efficiency by eliminating the requirement for pumping.
Other infrastructure includes 240 tonne of silo storage, a 70 tonne fertiliser bunker,and a large 10-bay Zincalume shed with concrete floor.
The property's topography of higher country and lower irrigated paddocks combined with established agroforestry plots provides shelter for the sheep and soils.
The historic circa 1880s Logan homestead features a traditional English garden with a spectacular entrance avenue of 130 oak trees, all more than a century old, and comprises five bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms and multiple living areas.
