Peterson property to be sold by auctions

— More than 3,200 acres of land owned by Peterson Farms’ cattle operation, L&L Farms, will be up for auction next month, according to Williams & Williams Real Estate Auctions website.

The area of the property for sale is about five square miles, or more than twice the size of the city of Decatur. It is comprised of four farms near Decatur located on Mt. Olive Road, Turkey Ridge Road, Y City Road and Shelley Farm Road.

The land will be subdivided into 38 parcels that range from 5 to 340 acres, according to the Tulsa-based real estate auction company.

The auction will be held on Sept. 25 at the farm on Mt. Olive Road, across the street from the Decatur Northside Elementary School, and prospective buyers can bid in person or online.

Minimum bids are set at $500 an acre for some properties and $5,000 a parcel for others. The auction company has detailed information about the parcels for sale - including picturesand maps - on its website, http://williamsauction.com.

“Parcels offer a wide variety of land and uses - from well-managed rolling pastures to wooded hills and draws that feature native oak and pecan trees, as well as abundant wildlife,” the website states, “Three of the parcels for sale include farm managers’ homes that are occupied and a fourth contains an ongoing poultry operation.”

Blake Evans, president of L&L Farms and grandson of the late Lloyd Peterson, did not respond by press time to telephone and email messages left for him.

Lloyd Peterson established L&L Farms in 1961 to research cattle genetics, according to the Peterson Farms website http//:petersonfarms.com. He used the abundant grazing land to develop the Peterson’s Polled Santa Gertrudis breed of cattle, the site states.

Peterson passed away in 2007, and much of his estate has since been sold by his heirs. Articles published in the Decatur Herald and Westside Eagle Observer document the dispersal of Peterson’s estate.

In July of 2008, the Peterson Farms broiler chicken operation - including the hatcheries, corporate offices, feed mill, processing facility, vehicles and network of independent contractors - were sold to Simmons Foods.

In 2010, the “Peterson Male” broiler breed genetic line was sold to Avigen Group, an Alabama poultry genetics firm.

In November 2011, Crye-Leike Realty in Gentry listed a total of 5,200 acres of Peterson Farms’ land for sale, with a price tag of more than $16 million. The farms for sale included properties with Gentry, Decatur, Gravette, Centerton and Colcord (Okla.) addresses.

The Decatur State Bank, owned by the Peterson Holding Company, received a purchase offer from Mathias Bancshares last Spring. An agreement between the companies was reached on April 12 and at the time it was anticipated the sale would close in three to four months. As of Monday, no new information on the sale had been released.

News of L&L Farms’ plans to close the Decatur General Store were also released last April. As of Monday the store was still open, but “Liquidation Sale” signs hung outside.

Dorothy Mae Peterson Estate Auction

Dorothy Mae Peterson’s collection of antiques will be sold during an estate auction on Sept. 22 and 23, according to the company handling the sale.

Dorothy Mae Peterson was the sister of the late Lloyd Peterson, founder of Peterson Farms in Decatur. She died on March 31, 2012, at Circle of Life Hospice in Springdale, according to her obituary.

The auction will be held in Decatur and handled by The Estate Road Show of Killen, Ala., and Kruse Energy & Equipment of Odessa, Texas, according to a brochure for the event.

More than 1,200 lots will be auctioned on Sept. 22and 23 and online auctions have already begun, according to the website www.estateroadshow.com.

Decatur Mayor Charles Linam confirmed the auction company reserved the Decatur Community Building on Sept. 22 and 23.

Dorothy Mae Peterson was born in 1922 and grew to young adulthood during the Great Depression, according to a description posted on the Auction Zip LIVE website, www.

auctionzip.com, one of the sites where online bids will be taken. As a young girl, she acquired a love of antiques, and many were accumulated as payment when she and her mother would barter with chickens and eggs. Her collection grew during the World War II era and continued to the present, the website states.

“Ms. Dorothy had amassed the incredible treasure trove of rare and valuable Majolica, porcelain and glass that we are now privileged to showcase for the world,” it states.

Online auctions for Dorothy Mae Peterson’s estate have already begun on sites such as eBay, Auction Zip LIVE and ArtFact. The final auction will be both live and online, according the auction brochure.

News, Pages 1 on 08/29/2012