Texas LAND•Summer 2017

SPORTING ISSUE
3
A LEGACY
AUCTION
Three Generations, Three Months
WRITTEN BY JENNI WINEGARNER
LEGACY LAND AUCTIONS
Wheat harvest was well underway across the northern
Panhandle as the warm southern winds threatened the
return of another Texas summer in early June 2015.
Gripped by nearly four years of drought with rainfall
well below the area’s average, the High Plains’ resilient
residents finally were catching glimpses of the light at the
end of the tunnel with a strong El Niño effect forecasted
for the summer and fall ahead. Rain was falling and spirits
were high, but for Walter E. Lasley of Stratford, Texas, an
important decision was weighing heavily on his mind.
After more than 46 years of managing his family’s
cattle feeding enterprise in Sherman County, Texas,
Walter was ready to slow down, but there was no one
in his family eager to take over the helm of Walter
Lasley & Sons, Inc. But for Walter, the decision to
simply walk away was not so simple. The operation
was not merely a business but his family’s story.
The Lasley family ventured south from Lee’s Summit,
Missouri, shortly after the turn of the 20th century. They
arrived in Sherman County in the northern Texas Panhandle
just 10 miles south of the Oklahoma border and put
down roots. Beginning in 1912, the elder Lasley saw the
opportunity to begin amassing his family’s sizable land
holding throughout the county. And in 1953, his son,
Walter Lasley, Jr., joined a handful of other cattle industry
pioneers who began feeding roughly 150 head of cattle
in the Texas Panhandle,a region now known around the
world as a hub for the nation’s cattle-feeding industry.
Fast-forward to 2015, Walter Lasley & Sons, Inc. is a wellrespected
cattle-feeding enterprise housing up to 20,000
head at a single time with more than 9,600 acres of some
of the most productive farm and ranch land in the High
Plains. But the cattle feeders’ life is not for everyone,
and not just anyone looking for their own piece of Texas
could afford such a sprawling agricultural operation.
With 13 partners in the family business and no one lining
up to take over the operation, Walter, as the head of the
family, made the difficult decision that it was time to sell.
But he knew a traditional approach of putting out some
signs and waiting wasn’t the right choice for this situation.
The recent rains were a welcome blessing, and astute
landowners and investors across Texas were beginning to
again see opportunity. Walter knew the time was right. But
with the fall cattle run quickly approaching and decisions
already being made for the wheat-planting season that was
getting closer by the day, he would have to act quickly.
Any cattle feeder, or successful investor for that matter,
can attest that the biggest rewards often come when
you are willing to assume a bit of risk. While the cattle
and commodity cycles made a quick sale ideal, no one
was interested in rushing to unload everything the family
had built over its 100-year history in Texas at whatever
fire-sale price one person might be willing to pay. What
they needed was an approach that would showcase
the property at its best and get as many potential
buyers as possible competing with one another.
While he considered his options, one solution seemed
to fit his situation perfectly. Walter reached out to a
few of his long-time friends and colleagues who had
recently launched Legacy Land Auctions, an Amarillobased
company focused exclusively on professional
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