Peterson land to be sold

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

— Twelve parcels of Peterson Farms’ land in the Decatur area - totaling 5,200 acres or 8.12 square miles - are up for sale with a price tag of more than $16 million.

The land is owned by L&L Farms, Peterson Farm’s cattle operation. It has been listed with Crye-Leike Realty in Gentry for about two weeks, according to real estate broker Delton Williams.

The farms for sale include properties with Gentry, Decatur and Gravette addresses, as well as properties in the Colcord, Okla., and Centerton areas, Williams said. Prices for the land range from $1,000 to $4,000 an acre, depending on the parcel, he said.

The most expensive parcels include a 928 acre cattle operation with five barns and “the ultimate corral/pen system” on Arkansas Highway 59 south of Decatur, listed for $3,572,800 and a 1,085 acre farm on Bredehoeft Road for $3,255,000, according to the Crye-Leike website, www.crye-leike.com. The least expensive property is 146 acres on West Mountain Road, listed for $146,670.

Blake Evans, CEO of Peterson Farms and grandson of founder Lloyd Peterson, did not return the Westside Eagle Observer’s phone calls before press time.

“L&L Farms, the branch of Peterson Farms devoted to cattle research, was created in 1961 primarily as a means to use theabundance of fertile grazing land owned by Lloyd Peterson,” the company’s website,www.petersonfarms.com states.

Peterson Farms sold its broiler chicken operation - including the hatcheries, corporate offices, feed mill, processing facility, vehicles and network of independent contractors - to Simmons Foods in July of 2008, nine months after the death of company founder Lloyd Peterson. The company retained the Decatur General Store, chicken breeder operation and cattle operation.

News, Pages 1 on 12/07/2011