Biggest Ranches in the World | Largest Ranch in Texas & Globally (2024)

Sprawling fields, endless meadows, acres of terrain, and the beauty of wildlife roaming. Searching for a place that stands in stark contrast to a familiar urban jungle isn’t as difficult as it may seem. Some of the biggest ranches in the world offer a picturesque experience that is unlike any other. In these areas, it’s easy to imagine how life may have been during the good old days of the Wild West—difficult and intense, albeit majestic. Today, the largest ranches in the world celebrate the unique beauty of life beyond concrete streets and high rise buildings.

Several ranches among this list protect various endangered species and they have served as a home in solitude for many others. Curious to know more about the biggest ranches in the world? First, let’s talk a little more about what a ranch is and how they’re qualified. Fair warning: this article is packed with mind-blowing details on some of the largest ranches found around the globe. From landmass to wildlife, ranches are a world apart from morning traffic and a nine-to-five job.

What Is a Ranch?

If you didn’t grow up roaming the open plains and sleeping under the stars, you might have trouble knowing exactly what a ranch is. Many people confuse a ranch with a farm, but there is a bit of a difference. Ranches raise animals whereas farms are dedicated to crops and producing food. It can get tricky because they often overlap. More precisely, farms are a tract of land devoted to agriculture and ranches are a large farm for raising bison, cattle, goats, horses, pigs, sheep, etc. In this list of the biggest ranches in the world, there are a few that include exotic animals such as alpaca, elk, emu, ostriches, and even wolves. Similarly, geographic regions often dictate types of ranches. While we’re mostly accustomed to cowboy outlook and cattle raising, ranching in South America, for example, expands beyond grasslands into rain forests.

What Is Ranching?

With the exception of Antarctica, ranches exist on every continent around the world. Australia, South America, North America, and Africa are some of the more prolific continents that depend on ranching and ranchers to raise necessary livestock. Ranching is the practice of raising livestock and wildlife to provide meat, dairy, products, and raw materials for fabrics. Ranching, on a large scale, can improve rangeland and plant biodiversity. In another light, some ranches, most often nameddude ranches, offer tourist facilities. Dude ranches allow guests to help out in real ranching activities, while others focus on horseback riding, trail rides, and even hunting.

Who Owns Them?

One interesting tidbit about these ranches is that they’re not all owned by cowboys. They’re big investments, and a lot of the people holding the deeds are rich folk who spend more time in boardrooms than on horses. The American who owns the most land is John Malone, a big shot in the cable business, and he’s followed by another media man, Ted Turner. These two seem to have a friendly competition on who can own more acres! Also among the top 10 is Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche. Other notable figures and conservationists have adopted ranches in other regions throughout the world. Douglas Tompkins, co-founder of The North Face and ESPRIT, and his wife, Kristine Tompkins, former CEO of Patagonia, Inc. own a ranch in Chile, called Fundo Los Leones.

Public lands also dominate the landscape of the rural West in the United States. In some areas, federal land exceeds 80 percent of the total land in the state. This means that ranching frequently requires the leasing of public land. What are some of the largest ranches in the world, though? We’re reviewing a select few below.

Vermejo Park Ranch

Location: Colorado and New Mexico, U.S.A.

Land Size: 590,823 acres

Other Features: 19 fishable lakes, 1,200+ Bison, on-property spa services, 30 miles of pristine streams

It’s easiest to start this list off with something local, even though this one only has a small part in Colorado. It’s one of the spots owned by Ted Turner, and it’s so big that it sprawls across state borders from New Mexico north through Colorado. As one of the biggest ranches in the world, Vermejo Park Ranch covers 590,823 acres. It’s primarily used for conservation and recreational activities, but it does offer hunting, fishing, and natural gas collection. This amazing ranch is open to the public and even offers exclusive accommodations with its many cottages, eco-friendly mountaintop lodges, and mansions. This property is known for hosting workshops, tours, and even seasonal festivals such as the October Harvest Festival.

Explore the many activities on Vermejo Park Ranch and all that northern New Mexico and Colorado has to offer.

Waggoner Ranch

Location: Texas, U.S.A.

Land Size: 520,527 acres

Other Features: Raises and sells cattle and horses

Another massive ranch in the United States unsurprisingly sits in Texas. This one got its start back in 1852, and over time it grew to about 520,527 acres. It’s been in the news a lot over the past few years because it was sold back in 2012. Even with the asking price of $725 million, Stan Kroenke, the owner of two sports teams in Denver, bought it in 2012. The W.T. Waggoner Estate stretches into six counties, with headquarters in Vernon, Texas. The main purpose of Waggoner Ranch is ranching, oil, and approximately 26,000 acres of cultivation. The ranch itself employs approximately 96 people ranging from cowboys, farm hands, oil fields workers, and office staff.

King Ranch

Location: South Texas, U.S.A.

Land Size: 825,000 acres

Other Features: Multiple land use including ranching, farming, and thoroughbred raising

Those ranches are big, but they can get bigger. King Ranch comes in at about 825,000 acres, and this makes it the biggest ranch in Texas. The ranch is located in south Texas between Corpus Christi and Brownsville. Unfortunately, it’s not as amazing as you would first expect. Instead of one massive area full of cows roaming around, it’s split into four neighboring parts. As a more modern ranch, King Ranch has a variety of business operations including:

King Ranch also has extensive operations in Florida. There, it is involved in sugar cane, sod, sweet corn, green bean, and specialty lettuce production and farming. In all, King Ranch is often considered the birthplace of ranching in North American and operates, today, in ranching, farming, retail, and more.

Anna Creek Station

Location: Australia

Land size: 2M Acres

Other features: 9,500 cattle

Australians use a different vocabulary word to describe a ranch. In this country, ranches are referred to asstations. Anna Creek Station is one of the largest ranches in the world sitting at over 2,000,000 acres). Accurately, it has been dubbed the world’s largest working cattle station. Anna King Stations has a blend of sandhill country with swamps and large areas of gibber tableland.

Interestingly enough, it was first started as a place to raise sheep. Unfortunately, the dingoes were eating too many of them, so they switched to the much more durable cow.

Alexandria Station

Location: Australia

Land size: 4M Acres

Other features: 200,000 cattle

If you truly want to be a modern-day cowboy or cowgirl, you might want to take a trip down under. For the last 140 years, the North Australian Pastoral Company has been crafting the finest quality beef for the Australian region. Its landmass crosses Queensland and the Northern Territory, as well. In 2009, NAPCo entered into a formal partnership with Bush Heritage Australia to support conservation initiatives across 14 North Australian and Queensland properties. They’ve dedicated sections of three properties as Nature Refuge, attempting to strengthen the lands’ biodiversity, productivity, and carbon density.

Mudanjiang City Dairy Farm

Location: Heilongjiang, China

Land size: 22.5M Acres

Other features: 100,000 cattle

This is a dairy farm instead of a classical ranch, but it still is impressive because that capacity is far bigger than any ranch in North America. The farm was only recently established in 2015 as a response to the Russian ban on dairy products to the EU. This ranch farm specializes in dairy and has around 100,000 cows, three times bigger than the largest livestock ranch in the US. The ranch can produce 800M liters of milk a year. In comparison, Fair Oaks, Indiana in the United States is the largest dairy farm with nearly 30,000 cows.

Tswalu Kalahari

Location: South Africa

Land size:200,000 Acres

Other features: Home to more than 79 species of mammals

Billionaire Nicky Oppenheimer of De Beers diamond owns one of the biggest ranches in the world. Tsawalu Kalahari is a private area in the Northern Cape, South Africa. It is effectively South Africa’s largest private game reserve covering over 200,000 acres. It is also a world-class conservation initiative for a vulnerable ecosystem. Here you can find the black-maned lion, oryx, aardvark, and meerkats. Its purpose servers ecologists and researches for strides in wildlife preservation.

Largest Ranch in the World

What is on the top of the chart to take the title of the largest ranch in the world? The answer is subjective. Whether you’re discussing land mass per square acre or the largest privately owned ranch, there are several different options. By definition, Tswalu Kalahari is the largest ranch that provides a purpose to care and protect wildlife with the safety of refuge in this South African ranch. In terms of land size, King Ranch out of Texas may take the title. Australian Ranches are also some of the largest by landmass size, but may not be as diverse as other ranches found throughout the globe. There are other types of ranches, too, like dude ranches that are becoming more popular as glamping takes mainstream by storm.

Largest Ranch in Texas

Making a list of the biggest ranches in the world would be a moot point if not for the great state of Texas. As one of the largest states in America, Texas has an abundance of open land that can serve the purpose of ranching. Not to mention, Texas is known for its cowboy heritage and amazing country music. However, the clear winner of the largest ranch in Texas is definitely King Ranch. Sitting at nearly 825,000 acres, its landmass is larger than the state of Rhode Island. It is home to 35,000 cattle and over 200 Quarter Horses. It also offers a diversity in its business practices with shops, hardware stores, cattle, and thoroughbred selling, and farming in both Texas and Florida.

Preserving the Land

These large ranches around the world are big business, there’s no doubt about that. However, it’s inspiring to think that some of the biggest landowners buy up land in order to preserve it. This is a nice step towards making sure we always have those wide-open spaces we love so much.

Is It Time to Be a Rancher?

Now that you know there are such big tracts of land where cowboys and cowgirls are spending their days exploring with cattle, does it make you want to make a lifestyle change? You have plenty of options! If you don’t, you can always come by the Grizzly Rose when you want to get into the spirit of the Wild West!

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Biggest Ranches in the World | Largest Ranch in Texas & Globally (2024)

FAQs

Biggest Ranches in the World | Largest Ranch in Texas & Globally? ›

Not to mention, Texas is known for its cowboy heritage and amazing country music. However, the clear winner of the largest ranch in Texas is definitely King Ranch. Sitting at nearly 825,000 acres, its landmass is larger than the state of Rhode Island. It is home to 35,000 cattle and over 200 Quarter Horses.

What's the biggest ranch in the world? ›

The largest cattle ranch in the world, Anna Creek, is on the market in Australia. For context, the ranch is about the size of New Hampshire, according to Time magazine.

What are the top 5 largest ranches in the US? ›

The Land Report compiled a list of the 100 largest landowners in the country in 2016 — here are the 10 families or individuals who topped the list.
  • Irving Family — 1.246 million acres.
  • Singleton Family — 1.1 million acres. ...
  • Brad Kelley — 1 million acres. ...
  • King Ranch Heirs — 911,215 acres. ...
  • Pingree Heirs — 830,000 acres. ...
Aug 18, 2017

Is King Ranch still the largest ranch in the world? ›

King Ranch is the largest ranch in America spanning approximately 825,000 acres of land.

What is the largest ranch in USA? ›

King Ranch, largest ranch in the United States, composed of a group of four tracts of land in southeastern Texas, totaling approximately 825,000 acres (333,800 hectares). The King Ranch was established by Richard King, a steamboat captain born in 1825 in Orange county, New York.

Who is the richest rancher in America? ›

John Malone is the largest private landowner in the United States. Malone made his fortune as a media tycoon, building the company Tele-Communications, Inc, or TCI, and acting as its CEO before selling it to AT&T for $50 billion in 1999.

Who owns most land in USA? ›

The largest landowners in the United States are the Emmerson Family, John Malone, the Reed Family, Ted Turner, and the Kroenke Ranch. The Emmerson Family is the largest landowner with 2.3 million acres of land across California, Washington state, and Oregon.

Who is the largest private landowner in the US? ›

John Malone – 2,200,000 Acres

Billionaire John Malone has the title of the largest private land owner in the United States. His fortune was made in the media space, where he still today owns many media assets we all consume today.

Who owns the King Ranch today? ›

For six generations, the King Ranch has remained in the hands of one family: the descendants of Richard King. Since his death in 1885, there has always been a family member in charge of the “home ranches,” the four massive divisions of land in South Texas.

How much is the King Ranch family worth? ›

If the Waggoner is worth $725 million, the King is worth $1.1 billion, Grunnah estimates.

What does the King Ranch do today to earn a profit? ›

Today's King Ranch has diversified into a major agribusiness with interests in cattle ranching and feedlot operations, farming (citrus, cotton, grain, sugar cane, and turfgrass), commodity marketing and processing, luxury retail goods, and recreational hunting.

What famous person owns a ranch in Texas? ›

Matthew McConaughey: Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey has owned a ranch in Texas since 2001. The LP Ranch, which the movie star owns with his wife Camila Alves and his brother Mike, is primarily used to raise angus beef cattle. But there is also an option for visitors to go hunting if they choose.

Who owns the most cattle in the US? ›

Texas has the most cattle in the United States followed by Nebraska & Kansas. Texas has the most cattle in the United States followed by Nebraska & Kansas. Texas accounts for roughly 13% of the cattle inventory in the United States.

What is the most famous ranch in Texas? ›

One of the most famous and the largest ranch in Texas, King Ranch stretches over 825,000 acres. The ranch was founded by Richard King, who was born in New York City to Irish parents. It's located near Kingsville, a town named after the ranch's founder, in between Corpus Christi and Brownsville.

How much land does Dutton own? ›

How much might John Dutton's Yellowstone Ranch be worth? Let's take a look 👇 In an early episode, Chief Thomas Rainwater from the Broken Rock Reservation tells John that he owns “a ranch the size of Rhode Island," which suggests the family ranch is more than 776,000 acres.

Who is the largest cattle rancher in the US? ›

Waggoner Ranch

This ranch is widely recognized as the largest in the country behind one fence. Founded back in 1849 by Dan Waggoner, the operation turned into a true ranching empire thanks to Dan's son, W.T. Waggoner.

How big is the Dutton ranch? ›

The 2,500-acre Chief Joseph Ranch in Darby, Montana, which doubles as the show's fictional Dutton Ranch, is not only a real-life historic landmark, family homestead and working ranch—but, it's also a guest ranch with cabins available for rental (when the show's not filming, of course).

How many acres is Dutton ranch? ›

How much might John Dutton's Yellowstone Ranch be worth? Let's take a look 👇 In an early episode, Chief Thomas Rainwater from the Broken Rock Reservation tells John that he owns “a ranch the size of Rhode Island," which suggests the family ranch is more than 776,000 acres.

Who owns the 6666 Ranch now? ›

Photos: Historic West Texas 6666 Ranch Has a New Owner

“Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan, who graduated from Fort Worth's Paschal High School, was rumored to have led the group that purchased the ranch.

How large is the 6666 Ranch? ›

The largest and oldest of the three divisions is the 6666 Ranch in Guthrie, Texas, which boasts over 142,000 acres and is listed for $192.2 million.

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