PrimeAg was listed on the stock exchange on Christmas Eve 2007, following successful completion of a $300m capital raising.

In the period since listing, the company has undertaken a rural property acquisition and improvement program, and commenced its principal business of crop production.

PrimeAg executive chairman Peter Corish said the profit for the period is in line with expectations for this initial period.

"In the formative stages of the company, earnings comprised a mix of interest income, forward commodity sale mark-to-market adjustments, and net returns from summer crops which had been planted by the vendors on several of the properties acquired under our property acquisition program," Mr Corish said.

"The property acquisitions were completed part way through the seasonal cropping cycle, and the result for the period to June 30, 2008 does not incorporate returns from any crop for which the company had control for the full crop cycle.

"As such, cropping returns in this period provide no clear guide to likely returns on an ongoing basis, but are encouraging."

Mr Corish said that about 80pc of the funds raised have been invested in cropping properties and water access entitlements to support the irrigated cropping areas, which comprise around 25pc of the total land holding.

PrimeAg chief executive officer John Stewart said a further notable achievement has been the development of the hub property operations and management structure at all five investment areas – Darling Downs, Emerald, Goondiwindi, Moree and Gunnedah.

"This structure is central to achieving climatic risk diversification and the efficiencies of scale, and in turn supporting the company’s objective to be in the top 20pc of financial performance for comparable Australian agricultural enterprises," Mr Stewart said.