CLOVIS, N.M. (AP) — The owner of a massive agribusiness in eastern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle has been killed in a helicopter crash.

Parmer County Sheriff Randy Geries of Texas told the Eastern New Mexico News (https://goo.gl/MgjYP0) Don Oppliger died in a crash in Castro County, Texas.

One of Oppliger's employees found the crash site early Sunday morning, but Geries says Oppliger may have been killed as early as Saturday afternoon.

Geries says Oppliger died at the scene of the crash.

The Oppliger Companies started with a feedlot outside Farwell, Texas.

Oppliger then acquired a 35,000 head feedlot near Clovis in 1991 before expanding again to Lincoln County, Nebraska, in 1998.

The company's website says it has more that 55,000 acres of irrigated farmland. It's headquartered in Amarillo, Texas.

 

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