LandReport.com » Texas A&M

Land Report 100: No. 62 Clayton Williams Jr.

Land Report Editors — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:54:48 +0000

OF THE COUNTRY’S 100 LARGEST LANDOWNERS, FEW ARE AS COLORFUL AS CLAYTIE.

A passionate approach to land stewardship is but one of Clayton Williams’s claims to fame. The diehard Texas Aggie is a born entrepreneur whose many pursuits have ranged from insurance salesman to banker, farmer, rancher, real estate developer, big-game hunter, philanthropist, conservationist, and, at one pivotal point in his career, front-running gubernatorial candidate. And like any self-made man, he can ride out tough times with the best of them—even down to his last bullet.

Williams’s trailblazing traits date to his colorful forebears, who mixed it up with the likes of Kit Carson, Billy the Kid, and Geronimo. The native Texan was born in Alpine in 1931 and raised in Fort Stockton. After attending Texas A&M and fulfilling his military obligations, he cut his teeth selling life insurance in Mineral Wells. But fate called him back to West Texas, where in a Fort Stockton coffee shop he learned about a farm for sale. He struck a deal with its owner to form an oil and gas partnership, and the cornerstone of his career was set. From that small start, his financial empire eventually grew to include a host of companies, from cow-calf operations to a safari company to several entities bearing the ClayDesta moniker, a nod to himself and wife Modesta.

It was in Modesta that the wildcatter found a soul mate who shared his love of the land and sense of adventure. In his book Claytie: The Roller-Coaster Life of a Texas Wildcatter, Mike Cochran describes Williams’s run as “an exciting mix of hard work and great fun, building pipelines and drilling wells one day and branding calves and working cows the next—all embellished with a spectacular marriage. Claytie and Modesta really are bigger than life.”

After an unsuccessful run for governor of Texas in 1990, Claytie turned his considerable energies on going public with Clayton Williams Energy Inc. (CWEI). With an estimated net worth of $100 million, his name was added to the Forbes Four Hundred. Today, he is a fixture on the Land Report 100 and ranked No. 62 in 2009 with 146,655 acres. During the past decade, CWEI has drilled 167 horizontal wells, mostly in the Austin Chalk formation as well as the Cotton Valley Reef in Texas, in Louisiana, in Mississippi, and in New Mexico.

“Claytie is, by all measures, one of a kind,” says Cochran. “He’s an absolutely wonderful character. With his ranch he’s been really innovative and was recognized nationally for some of the innovations to trap water and to get the best use of the land.”

No related posts.

Pentagon Turns to Texas A&M to Protect Endangered Species

Eric OKeefe — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:00:59 +0000

Landowners in and around Fort Hood have been receiving millions of dollars from Texas A&M to participate in a secretive Pentagon program whose goal is to protect endangered species.

According to The Dallas Morning News, “the program – which does not disclose the landowners’ identities, the amounts they receive or precisely where their properties are located – aims to provide ranchers with expertise and financial incentives to expand habitat for the endangered golden-cheeked warbler.”

To date an estimated $4.4 million has been doled out by the Aggies, specifically, Texas A&M’s Institute of Renewable Natural Resources.

Critics are vocal:

Despite complaints that the program is a boondoggle for the landowners, some federal officials are pushing to replicate it at other military sites and in federal highway projects. The program’s effectiveness has been questioned by several military officials, federal wildlife authorities and an independent consulting firm, which recommended that the Army cancel it.

But supporters are many, including Texas Comptroller Susan Combs, who helped start the project when she was the state’s agriculture commissioner.

Slowdown Forecast for Texas Land

Eric OKeefe — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:00:13 +0000

Ag economists at Texas A&M are predicting that the red-hot Texas land market will lose its sizzle next year. Since 2003, land prices have increased an average of 14.5 percent annually, and with the median price statewide approximately $2,300 per acre, that means the average price would jump to $4,600 per acre by 2013. According to the Aggies, that’s not going to happen. Here’s why:

1) FALLING COMMODITY PRICES. Higher oil costs pushed grain prices to record levels this year. But as oil dropped, so did the support for ethanol, and less demand for ethanol means lower corn prices, which will cool the demand for cropland.

2) STRONGER DOLLAR. As the American dollar continues to grow stronger, American foodstuffs become more expensive overseas. End result? Less demand.

3) TIGHTER CREDIT. Any explanation needed? See your banker to discuss.

4) THE BURGEONING FEDERAL DEBT. Since about one-third of the federal debt is held by foreign investors, the global slowdown means the U.S. Treasury will have to pay higher rates to attract and hold these funds. As the Treasury increases its rates, U.S. borrowers will feel the pinch.

Want the rest of the story? Here you go: [dm]6[/dm]

No related posts.