Unlikely site flagged for foreign-owned feedlot

When you hear the words ‘intensive beef feedlot’ you might think of something like Five Star Beef’s long-running operation in Canterbury.

That is, dead flat, easily serviced, barely 20km from the nearest meat processing plant, and surrounded by thousands of hectares of land capable of generating a constant supply of both feed and young cattle.

You probably don’t think of a remote block of land in the Marlborough Sounds where the only vehicular access is 40 km of narrow, winding road still not fully fixed after being virtually destroyed by storm damage in 2021 and 2022.

And that’s just the Kenepuru Road, which starts at Linkwater between Havelock and Picton.

To truck cattle from Linkwater to the closest possible beef processing site in Blenheim is about the same distance again.

According to Land Information New Zealand, however, the foreign buyer who recently paid $4.25 million for a 288 ha sheep and beef farm at Kenepuru Head plans to convert the land ‘into an intensive feedlot farming system utilising barn systems for feeding and housing cattle.’

Sjerp William Ysselstein’s purchase was approved by the Overseas Investment Office in April under the sensitive land – farm land benefit test.

“The key benefits that will likely result from this investment are economic benefits in the form of increased production and export receipts, creation of employment and additional capital expenditure,” the office says.

Ysselstein, who according to the NZ Companies Register lives in Hawaii, must complete the development by 30 April 2030 to meet the conditions of his purchase approval.

If he doesn’t, the OIO says its compliance team will investigate to find out why, and decide the most appropriate enforcement action.

Marlborough District Council says no resource consent application has been received for the property.

The property is zoned Coastal Environment Zone, where farming is a permitted activity.

However, the Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan definition of farming specifically excludes intensive farming.

“Intensive farming is not specifically provided for in the Coastal Environment Zone and, if the operation meets that definition, it would be considered a discretionary activity requiring resource consent,” the council says.

The OIO says Ysselstein has an ‘extensive background’ in dairy and beef farming in North America.

Publicly available information indicates he founded Meadowvale Dairy in Iowa with a small herd in the early 1990s.

As of last year that business was reported to be milking 11,000 cows and Ysselstein’s farming interests have expanded from the Midwest to Southern California, New Mexico and Arizona.

In early April, just after the OIO approved his Sounds purchase, he incorporated Magic Valley Farm Ltd in NZ, teaming up with Blenheim accountant Matt Kerr as the mandatory NZ-resident director required by law in NZ for non-resident business owners.

Kerr has close ties to the Marlborough business community. He is currently a director of Marlborough Lines, chairperson of both Marlborough Airport and Marlborough District Council Holdings; and a director of Marlborough Grape Growers Cooperative.

He is also part-owner of WK Ltd and Arapawa Seafarms.