On Tuesday, 3,200 acres near Decatur once owned by the poultry company Peterson Farms is going on the auction block.
The land will be split into 38 parcels, some as small as 5 acres, others up to 340.
L&L Farms LLC, a former division of meat producer Peterson Farms, is selling the property. Established in 1961, L&L Farms used the land for cattle breeding, creating the Polled Santa Gertrudis genetic line.
Amy Bates, a spokesman for Tulsa-based Williams & Williams Auctioneers, which is handling the sale, said the auction is structured to offer parcel types with a wide variety of options for potential buyers.
All the parcels have road access or deeded access to state and county roads, according to a news release. Some sites include mountain views for homes or commercial sites. Three parcels include farm man-agers’ homes that are occupied, and another has a poultry operation.
Gary Cooper of Cooper Auction Marketing in Fayetteville classified the auction of the L&L Farm property as large-scale but said similarly sized auctions are becoming more common. He said that subdividing large tracts of land into differently sized parcels is one of the best way to attract bidders.
The auction will begin at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday on-site at parcel 3 on Mount Olive Road in Decatur. Bids can also be placed remotely in real time at auctionnetwork.com.
To bid online, potential buyers must place a deposit of $25,000 with Williams & Williams. More information on the property and auction can be found at www.williamsauction.com/LLFarms.
Cooper said the use of online bidding by pre-qualified buyers is becoming popular. He added that auctions in general are generating more interest, in part because of several auctionbased shows that are popular on cable television. He called the phenomenon “auction awareness.”
Hannes Combest, chief executive officer of the National Auctioneers Association in Kansas City, Mo., said the organization is seeing a good number of land auctions. He noted that land auctions remained strong even during the housing bust that started in 2008.
Parcels 1 through 34 have an opening nominal bid of $500 per acre and parcels A through D have nominal opening bids of $5,000 per parcel, according to the release.
Parcels 1 through 34 and parcels A through D can be inspected on Sunday, 1 p.m.-4 p.m., and all parcels will be open for inspection two hours before the auction, according to the release.
Decatur-based Peterson Farms Inc., once one of the state’s largest poultry companies, was purchased by Siloam Springs-based Simmons FoodsInc. in 2008. Simmons Foods took ownership of Peterson’s hatchery operations, its feed mill, transport vehicles, chicken flocks and a network of contract growers.
Founded by Lloyd Peterson in 1939 as Peterson Produce, the company became a major supplier of broiler breeder stock in the United States and worldwide. The “Peterson male” rooster created by the company was considered an industry standard.
In 2010, Aviagen Group, a major poultry genetics company, bought the Peterson male broiler breeder genetic line from Peterson Farms. Huntsville, Ala,-based Aviagen also gained the Peterson brand name for broiler breeder stock.
Business, Pages 23 on 09/21/2012