Land Report January 2013 Newsletter

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announces his plan to leave Washington and return home to Colorado. The Supreme Court agrees to hear a dispute between Texas and Oklahoma over water rights. And the State of Texas, on a completely different matter, asks the Nation’s highest court to intervene in yet another water fight, one that involves Texas and another neighbor, New Mexico.

So much for a slow start to 2013. Our January newsletter features these news items and as well as others, including Land Report 100er Louis Bacon’s timeless gift to establish the Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area in Southern Colorado.

For up-to-the minute reports on listings, auctions, sales, and breaking news pertaining to land and landowners, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Sold! Oklahoma’s Waurika Farms

APRIL 12, 2012 UPDATE:

Hall & Hall Auctions auctioned Waurika Farms, one of the largest beef production operations in the Southern Oklahoma, for a whopping $11 million ($1,833 per acre). Pre-sale estimates ranged from $1,300 to $1,500 per acre. Owned by Oklahoma’s Drummond family, the 7,000-acre farm includes 3,300 acres of wheat land and 2,700 acres of Bermuda grass and native species. “We were also able to sell all of the equipment above the sale price,” says Auctioneer Scott Shuman, who noted that 15 registered bidders attended.

MARCH 14, 2012 POST:

Waurika Farms is one of the largest cattle operations in the area, historically producing two million pounds of beef annually.

At 7,000± acres, Waurika Farms, which is the family beef operation of the well-known Drummond family of Oklahoma. This expertly designed and efficient 21st century stocker cattle operation can run between 8,000 and 10,000 head of stocker cattle annually.

The acreage of this property is comprised of 1,000 acres of privately leased land of native grass, approximately 3,300 acres of wheat land, and about 2,700 acres in mostly Bermuda grass and native species. There are also over 60 ponds throughout the property in the wheat traps and grass traps, providing an excellent source of water for the livestock.

Created to maximize beef production in the most efficient way possible, Waurika Farms includes 30 miles of new fence laid out to accommodate cattle movement with a minimal number of employees. The property also includes a modern headquarters with a good set of pens and scales, a 28,000-sq.-ft. shop building, a covered arena, an outdoor working arena, and the owner’s home. There are five other working pens and two other sets of scales on the farm.

Auction Date: April 12, 2012 at 1:30 PM CST
Information Dates: March 21, 2012 and March 29, 2012 from 1-4 PM CST
Location: Waurika Farms Headquarters, Waurika, OK

For more information or to request a showing, contact Scott Shuman at (800) 829-8747, John Wildin at (620) 662-0411, or visit www.HallHall.com.

94 – Aubrey McClendon – 98,106 acres

The Chesapeake Energy (CHK) CEO and chairman makes his debut on The Land Report 100 after closing on the 18,506-acre TI Valley Ranch just south of McAlester in his native Oklahoma. Located in Pittsburg County, the trophy property is approximately 50 percent timber (shortleaf pine) and 50 percent native grass.

75 – Robert A. Funk – 124,744 acres

Funk’s Express Ranches run one of the largest seed stock operations in the country. The ranches—Express Ranches in Yukon, Oklahoma; Express Atmore Ranch in Ute Park, New Mexico; and
the Express UU Bar Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico—also develop, test, and export genetics, as well as conduct an artificial insemination and embryo transfer program.

77 – Drummond Family – 119,649 acres

Drummond Land & Cattle Co. dates back to 1887, when three Drummond brothers first learned the Osage language in order to lease land from the tribe. Tim and Ladd Drummond now manage ranching and farming operations in Osage and Jefferson counties with more than 6,500 mother cows, 4,000 wild horses, and 12,000 yearlings.

10 – Huber Family – 600,000 acres

Started in 1883 by Joseph Maria Huber, the New Jersey-based J.M. Huber Corporation has grown from a small dry-colors business into a multinational, industrially diverse company. But evenwith all this growth, at least one thing hasn’t changed: The Huber family is still minding the store, and the corporation is one of the largest family-owned businesses in the country. The land holdings of Huber’s natural resources division include 600,000 acres across the country. The company has timberland in Maine, Oklahoma, and the Southeast, and its oil and gas properties can be found in Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Utah.

1. Ted Turner – 2 million acres

Why on earth would one man own 20 properties in 10 states, a swath of America so large that it not only dwarfs Rhode Island, but also exceeds both Rhode Island and Delaware combined? The answer is astonishingly simple. Because he’s Ted Turner.

The man is incapable of thinking small. That’s how he made his fortune, first by buying a failing UHF station and transforming it into WTBS. Then he launched CNN. Then he acquired the MGM movie library. Then he rolled out Turner Classic Movies. With Turner, one idea begets another, which is how he became the country’s leading land baron.

The brainstorm behind his far-flung empire was a single bison he bought in 1976. Three decades later, he owns 40,000, the largest private herd in the country. Bison steaks and bison burgers from Turner Ranches are shipped to upscale grocers coast to coast and served at his chain of restaurants, Ted’s Montana Grill.

Along the way, he purchased 14 ranches in 7 western states: 4 in Montana, 4 in Nebraska, and 3 others in South Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma. In New Mexico alone, he owns more than 1 million acres.

“I acquired more land because I required more land. I wanted it,” Turner said in a 2004 interview. “I never like to buy anything except land. It’s the only thing that lasts.”

The Turner portfolio also includes personal homes in the Atlanta area and in Big Sur, as well as plantations in South Carolina and Florida, where his beloved Avalon lies. This treasured retreat encompasses more than 25,000 acres south of Tallahassee, and with a conservationist’s touch, Turner is reintroducing longleaf pine on the property. The vast majority of his holdings, however, can be found on the Great Plains and in the Rocky Mountain West, where he stocks his bison.

Turner’s ultimate plan? According to published reports, after his death the properties will go into a trust, which his five children will manage until the last one passes away. At that point, the trust will revert to the Turner Foundation, an Atlanta-based charitable organization that Turner founded in 1990 to preserve the environment.