(Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly used the Easterday Farms Produce Co.’s logo. This logo is unrelated to either of the debtors or the bankruptcy; there is no evidence that Easterday Farms Produce Co. has engaged in anything but commercially ethical conduct. WLJ apologizes for any suggestion that Easterday Farms Produce Co. was involved in any of the conduct or activities referenced in this article.)
A Salt Lake City-based farm services nonprofit with ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has emerged as the winning bidder of Easterday Farms and Easterday Ranches.
Farmland Reserve, Inc. was the successful bidder, with a $209 million offer among five qualified bidders, including a company linked to Bill Gates. The offer is $204 million in cash for the properties, an estimated $3 million in transfer tax, $500,000 in legal fees and an additional $5 million at the close of the sale for administrative expenses.
The sale involves all the assets, mineral and water rights on four parcels located east of Plymouth and south of Finley in Benton County, WA. The farms in the sale are the Cox Farm, River Farm, Nine Canyon Farm and Goose Gap Farm, including the farm manager house.
Cox Farm is about 7,500 acres of irrigated farmland and includes a 35,000-head feedlot. It also contains nearly 65,000 square feet of storage facilities, a 4,300-square-foot horse barn, and a 2,500-square-foot residence.
River Farm is approximately 5,800 acres and includes an approximately 8,400-square-foot shop, storage facilities for about 95,000 bushels of grain, and three manufactured homes.
Nine Canyon Farm is about 3,000 acres and includes a grape vineyard, cherry orchard, 40,000 square feet of storage facilities, four manufactured homes, and a mobile home park with six mobile homes.
Goose Gap Farm is about 6,300 acres of pivot-irrigated and dry pastureland. The mortgages on these properties total approximately $75.5 million, with Prudential Insurance Co. of America owed roughly $50 million and AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. $25.5 million.
Excluded property in the sale consists of all equipment and machinery, any payments received for any crop growing on the properties, crops in storage and all cattle.
Farmland Reserve
According to Dun and Bradstreet, Farmland Reserve, Inc. has 802 total employees across all of its locations and generates $239.95 million in sales through its 21 companies. Farmland Reserve, Inc. purchases the farms and ranches and AgReserves, Inc. manages them. According to the AgReserves website, they are a 70-year-old company dedicated to sustainability. Farmland Reserve, Inc. owns farms and ranches in 30 states, Canada and other countries, with three separate divisions: cattle, row crops and permanent crops.
Farmland owns the Deseret Ranch, one of the largest ranches in central Florida with 312,000 acres. In 2004, Farmland purchased 88,000 acres in Nebraska, bringing the total acreage owned in the state to 228,000 acres. The company also owns Deseret Farms in Chico, CA, that processes prunes and nuts under the Berberian Nut Company. In addition, Farmland owns Deseret Land and Livestock, a 200,000-acre ranch with roughly 8,500 cattle and land as a hunting and fishing reserve in Woodruff, UT.
This purchase will increase Farmland’s holdings in the Columbia Basin. A Farmland subsidiary, AgriNorthwest, owns close to 100,000 acres in the basin.
The sale will transfer an operation that Ervine Easterday started in 1958 of 300 acres in the Columbia Basin that grew to 18,000 acres of potatoes, onions, corn and wheat.
In late January, Tyson Fresh Meats, the beef and pork processing subsidiary of Tyson Foods Inc., filed a lawsuit against cattle company Easterday Ranches, Inc., accusing the company of filing false cattle invoices for 200,000 cattle and the feed associated with these missing cattle.
As a result, Easterday Ranches and Easterday Farms filed for bankruptcy in early February following revelations that Cody Easterday created a scheme to make up over $200 million in losses between 2011 and 2020—more than $50 million in 2018 alone—speculating on cattle and corn futures. Tyson Fresh Meats is the principal unsecured creditor who is owed “at least” $225 million in the bankruptcy case.
Cody Easterday is awaiting sentencing on Aug. 4 following a guilty plea to a single count of wire fraud in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington. He faces up to 20 years in prison and has been ordered to pay restitution.
Spokane-based Washington Trust Bank and John Deere Financial filed separate suits against Easterday Farms, Inc., but both scheduled “conference[s] in this adversary proceeding is continued sine die (adjourned without an appointment date or resumption),” according to court documents.
The bid by Farmland Reserve, Inc. will be formalized at a court hearing on July 14. Bill Gates-linked 100C, LLC is the backup-bidder with a $208 million bid if Farmland does not prevail in the purchase. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
