Keeping Kidmans Aussie

"What people want with these things is an opportunity," he said.

"Ernst & Young will manage the sale tender and their team will look at all of the options."

One of those options, Mr Humble said, was an initial public offering.

"There is certainly an ability to list these enterprises that have critical mass, by way of capital and long-term earnings, through an IPO process," he said.

"If there is a desire to maintain long-term Australian ownership, these objectives can be appropriately handled."

This could be done through a board and management structure that reflected and could execute the objectives and expectations of the investors, both from an operational and intergenerational perspective.

"An IPO would give average Australian investors, if they desire, the ability to invest in those sort of farming enterprises which they'd otherwise not have access to - the real backbone of Australia, iconic Australian farming enterprises which come to market once every couple of generations.

"If it's lost to Australia, when's the next opportunity to buy the farm back, so to speak?"

Mr Humble said exposure to soft commodity production was also becoming a more important part of the investment universe.

Potential buyers would be difficult to identify until numbers came out in May.

"It's obviously large and sizable, so unless it's an IPO it's going to be people with pretty deep wallets, either domestic or overseas, and with the dollar being lower than it was 12 to 18 months ago, it makes it easier for overseas buyers to buy these assets," he said.

"We saw the same upswell of overseas buyers in the late '80s when the dollar sank and the same arguments arising, and also during the GFC when the Aussie dollar dropped."

At this point in time, it is difficult to determine where the final investor pool might come from, but there is as much chance of an Australian investor stepping up as any other.

Mr Humble said there were potentially a number of people in Australia who could buy S. Kidman & Co, but it was a matter of whether they wanted to step up for an intergenerational investment and understood the cyclical nature of agriculture.

"And potentially, want to keep gearing on it as such so it is protected for intergenerational investment."

He pointed to US tycoon Warren Buffett and iconic US company Heinz as an example of this. In 2013, Buffett partnered with investment firm 3G to buy Heinz.

"He obviously wanted to maintain some American control of it and he was prepared, in his 80s, to look forward 100 years."