Sibling Rivalry Contributed to Escalated Bidding in Dunklin Properties

$85 million.

We’re told that’s a good number for the winning bid in the court-ordered auction of farming and hunting property spread across 15,881 acres in Arkansas and Jefferson counties.

You might recall the high bidder was George Dunklin Jr., national president of Ducks Unlimited and a member of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission from 2005-12.

He and his sister, Deborah Tipton, owned the portfolio of farmland, timberland, reservoirs and Five Oaks Duck Lodge.

The Feb. 24 auction was the culmination of a long-running federal lawsuit launched by Tipton.

We’re told that bidding between the siblings was the driving force behind the $85 million.

Our Bayou Meto bureau reports the property, known as the M.E. Black Farms, carried a low, pre-auction appraisal of $66 million.

The holdings carried a $75 million estimated value in the weeks leading up to the auction, a number that found its way into the auction documentation.

Some trace the origination of that figure to a $75 million offer made more than six months ago by agri wheeler-dealer Jimmy Winemiller on behalf of a client back East.

While Dunklin owns the entire property for now, expectations remain that a post-auction sale of various pieces will follow in the weeks ahead.

His retained ownership of the beloved Five Oaks and associated lands is portrayed as a given.