History

The Henry Brothers partnership began in 1962 when brothers Jimmy and Ray Henry began working the family farm together.   The farm and ranch has been in the family since 1901, when the Henry family settled in Sabinal after relocating here from their farm and ranch in Flower Mound, Texas.  Their grandfather, James A. Henry (1861-1930), had some serious health issues, and his doctor recommended that he move to a warmer and dryer climate.   Their father, A. L. (Bud) Henry was just a little boy when this move happened.   

Bud returned home after World War I to the farm, married Alice and began his family.   Jimmy was born in 1928, Eleanor in 1932, and Ray in 1936.   All three attended the Trio School, a country school between Sabinal and Concan.   Bud and Alice gradually expanded the operation for 40+ years, purchasing surrounding properties.  However, in the 50's, the drought forced him to put most of the land into the "soil bank".   

Jimmy attended Texas A & I Kingsville after graduating from Sabinal High School.  Soon after, Jimmy and Faye married in 1950.   Jimmy began working for Valdina Farms as they began their family.   He worked there for 12 years supervising the farming operations for Valdina Farms.   In 1954, after graduating from Sabinal High School, Ray attended Texas A&I University Kingsville on an ROTC scholarship, and graduated from there in May of 1958 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture.  Ray and Melba married in September after their graduation, and Ray began his service in the U.S. Army soon after.    After fulfilling his military requirements in the Army, Ray and Melba returned to Texas and he began working in Robstown selling farm equipment.   After getting a letter from his mother that the land was coming out of the soil bank, Ray and Melba returned to Sabinal in 1959 to begin the process of transitioning into the family farm.  It was rough at first, but Melba's teaching job paid for the first tractor Ray purchased, and they began their life together here in Sabinal.

In 1962, Bud decided to fully retire.  Jimmy and his family moved back to town, and he and Ray began their partnership by leasing the home place from Bud and Alice.  Henry Brothers started very humbly and grew into a large and successful farm and ranch operation.   For most of their time together, Ray oversaw the farming operations, and Jimmy ran the cattle operations.   They were a great team.   

In 2013, Ray passed away suddenly from pneumonia at the age of 77.   At that time, Jimmy, Faye & Melba decided to form a corporation, and Henry Bros. Land, LLC and Henry Bros. Farms, LLC were born.   At the time, Jimmy was 86 years old and semi retired, but he roared back into action taking on all of the daily operational management for the farm and ranch.   He did this full time until his illness and death in 2018 at the age of 89.  Currently there are 6 members of the corporation:  Faye Henry, Melba Henry, Mike Henry, Diana Schwind, Stephen Henry and Sara Ball.    

In 2017, Ray and Melba's son, Stephen, retired from teaching and moved back to Sabinal to begin his transition into the family farm business, under the careful eye of his Uncle Jimmy.   In 2022, Stephen and his wife Dawn purchased 100% of the shares of Henry Bros Farms, LLC.   Stephen is the operations manager of the business.    

Stephen is no stranger to the farming operation.   He grew up on the farm, working there as a child, teenager and throughout college, as well as intermittently through his adult life.   Stephen and his father jointly ran a small ranch near Victoria for 15 years.   This small ranch belonged to Melba's parents, and when they passed away in 1999, Stephen leased it from his mother and her brother and ran a cow / calf operation on their old home place.   Most of his teaching jobs were in small rural farm communities, and he often drove tractors, combines and trucks to help out his farming friends that he made there.   Stephen taught in Floydada, Denton, Winters, San Angelo, Grape Creek, Vanderbilt and Waco in his 30 years of public school teaching. 

The operation has 2 full time employees.    Martin Foster grew up in Sabinal next door to Jimmy, and started working on the farm when he was still in school, but after his senior year he went to work for John Deere in Uvalde.   After working there for a bit, and with a little coaxing from Ray,  Martin began his full-time employment with Henry Brothers in 1976 .   Moises Martinez started working here in 1981 when he was still a teenager.   He walked here from his home town near Mexico City, and was only intending to stay for a week or two.   He was such a great fit in our organization, the Henry Brothers made him an offer that he accepted, and has been here ever since.   Moises' family later was able to move to Sabinal, and currently lives in our family farm's generational home.     

Henry Brothers Land and Cattle operates just under 4,500 acres of farm and ranch land.   They have a cow and calf operation, along with a feeder calf operation.   Cotton, Corn, Milo, Wheat, Oats, Sesame and Hay Grazer are their main crops in rotation on both dry land and irrigated land.  The farm and ranch headquarters is located 6.5 miles NNW of Sabinal, in Uvalde County, Texas.