New England showpiece Killarney goes to market after 120 years in Ellis family

Retirement beckons for Ken and Barb Ellis, who plan to hit the road in their four wheel drive and boat for a while before they decide where to settle. But, speaking with Mr Ellis about the farm, you'd never know because he's still exploring plant nutrition and soil health.

That passion has paid dividends, with Mr Ellis increasing the carrying capacity of his land from 1 to 4.5 DSE to the acre.

Despite 40 years of annual superphosphate applications, Mr Ellis said the turning point came when he dressed the property with microbes, which sent the roots of the fescue, clover, rye, kikuyu and cocksfoot pastures far deeper into the undulating soft granite soils.

"Normally, the roots of the fescue would go down about eight or nine inches and now they're going down 15-16 inches," he said.

No doubt it's also helped that the farm, subdivided into 16 paddocks, has been rotationally grazed to maximise pasture production. It all means that, in an average year, he's run 260 breeder cattle plus their progeny.

Elders Armidale agent Craig Waters said that with "no work to do, Killarney will satisfy the most fastidious purchaser".

"I haven't seen a weed on the place and with Killarney's 650-millimetre rainfall, you'd expect to see some," he said.

That careful management seems to extend to everything on the property, from the manicured garden, orchard and chook yard around the modern four-bedroom, 30-suqare, brick homestead through to the taut seven-wire fencing.

"You can wean lambs with these fences," Mr Ellis said.

And, though not a sheep grazier, he did run lambs for four years and the barely-used but well preserved three-stand woolshed would easily be recommissioned.

Water is also well set up, with a bore capable of delivering up to 7500 litres an hour, 11 large dams and a creek running through Killarney.

"The biggest dam is about 20 megalitres and most of them took 12-14 hours with a D7 to build," Mr Ellis said.

"Even in the worst drought we've had, we came nowhere near running out of water."

Other infrastructure includes a large set of steel cattle yards with curved race and force with crush and holding paddocks. There are also two large machinery sheds and a three-bay workshop.

Killarney will be auctioned on February 16 and Mr Waters expects it to attract bids in the "high $3 millions into the $4millions".

Contact Elders agent Craig Waters on 0448 389 025 or Mark Atkin on 0455 310 657.

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