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Texas ranch sells for $300-million

Texas ranch sells for $300-million

By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com

In a sale valued at US$240-million (~CDN $300-million), a Texas ranch was sold, including land and industrial assets, featuring 31,000 acres in Milam and Lee counties.

Known as the Sandow Lakes Ranch, the property included the site of the former Rockdale smelter, permanently closed in 2018.

Completed on October 29, 2021, the transaction included improved pasture lands, ag properties and industrial assets, purchased by SLR Property I, LP, an affiliate of a Texas real estate enterprise.

The property was owned and sold by Alcoa Corporation who since purchasing the land, have worked with tenants to create economic development opportunities.

Alcoa received US$230-million in cash, noting that it had taken six years to get to this point after performing significant agricultural land improvements, adding water development and solar components, as well as intermodal, tech and other industrial capabilities that apparently SLR found most agreeable.


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Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

Video: Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

When was the last time you read the label on your honey?

We spent a day at Molenkamp Honey Farms with Michael Molenkamp, who has been keeping bees for 17 seasons and runs three to four thousand hives. In mid-September, he was finishing treatments and getting his bees ready for winter, and he walked us through how Alberta honey gets made.

Alberta has just 150 commercial beekeepers running 300,000 colonies, and together they produce 40% of Canada’s honey. Long summer days and golden canola fields give Alberta honey a light flavour that’s hard to match anywhere else.

Molenkamp calls Alberta beekeepers some of the most resilient farmers he knows. There’s plenty of Alberta honey to go around, but a lot on our shelves isn’t from here, so his ask is simple. Give the label a second look and choose honey made by Alberta beekeepers, or buy straight from a beekeeper near you.