America's largest farmland owner (242,000 acres)

[JP1]

America’s Biggest Owner Of Farmland Is Now Bill Gates

The Microsoft billionaire has been quietly building a 242,000-acre portfolio of agricultural land across 18 states.

www.forbes.com

 

[7610 super q]

That should keep the price of land up.
He could grow an acre of swedes, but what about the rest ?

 

[JP1]

That should keep the price of land up.
He could grow an acre of swedes, but what about the rest ?

One Riggit Galloway outfit to the acre = ..............

 

[redsloe]

So what's going to happen in about 50 years time and most of america's land is owned by microsoft, Amazon and the other one? Are people going to be held over a barrel to be able to eat?
If your a glass half empty guy, you might be worried.

 

[Frodo]

That should keep the price of land up.
He could grow an acre of swedes, but what about the rest ?

Apples?

 

[Brisel]

Apples?

I see what you did there

 

[chaffcutter]

Is the King Ranch in Texas not bigger than that? It’s all in a ring fence too (apart from the internal roads that is)?

 

[Exfarmer]

Is the King Ranch in Texas not bigger than that? It’s all in a ring fence too (apart from the internal roads that is)?

According to the internet, The King Ranch is 3 times bigger,but their may be differences in the technical ownership

 

[chaffcutter]

Visited King Ranch in 2000. Fascinating history, they are on the Gulf coast and the water they were pumping for the stock was becoming more and more saline, so they were close to going bankrupt. Started deep drilling to try for clean water, and struck oil instead!
They had not long started arable cropping then, only about ten yrs iirc, but they had 56000 acres of crops by then. Their Santa Gertrudis cattle, their own breed, were wonderful stock.

 

[zero]

America’s Biggest Owner Of Farmland Is Now Bill Gates

The Microsoft billionaire has been quietly building a 242,000-acre portfolio of agricultural land across 18 states.

www.forbes.com

He's maybe going to grow potatoes and turn them into microchips....

 

[Farmer Roy]

Visited King Ranch in 2000. Fascinating history, they are on the Gulf coast and the water they were pumping for the stock was becoming more and more saline, so they were close to going bankrupt. Started deep drilling to try for clean water, and struck oil instead!
They had not long started arable cropping then, only about ten yrs iirc, but they had 56000 acres of crops by then. Their Santa Gertrudis cattle, their own breed, were wonderful stock.

Santa cattle are very well adapted to our climate & are quite popular.
I think the first Quarter Horses in Australia came from King Ranch as well. I know my ex father in law went over to look at them back in the day, with his boss

 

[Farmer Roy]

Is the King Ranch in Texas not bigger than that? It’s all in a ring fence too (apart from the internal roads that is)?

I would have thought there’d be a number of family owned operations in the US bigger than that ?
240,000 acres, that’s less than 100,000 hectares . . .

 

[Farmer Roy]

A quick google search reveals the largest cattle ranch in the US is the Wagonner Estate in Texas, with around 200,000 hectares ( 500,000 acres )
But that is “ranch land”. Is the original article differentiating between “farmland” ( arable ??? ) & ranching ?

 

[Farmer Roy]

Anna Creek Station is 2.4 million hectares . . .

 

[le bon paysan]

America’s Biggest Owner Of Farmland Is Now Bill Gates

The Microsoft billionaire has been quietly building a 242,000-acre portfolio of agricultural land across 18 states.

www.forbes.com

Who owns the most land in America? Jeff Bezos and John Malone are among them

The 50 individuals, families, and heirs on this list, compiled by 24/7 Wall St., own about 1.4% of the total landmass of the US.

eu.usatoday.com

John Malone owns 2.2million acres,
Ted Turner is second with 2million and the biggest private buffalo herd in the world at around 50,000head.
King ranch is 10th

 

[Brisel]

I would have thought there’d be a number of family owned operations in the US bigger than that ?
240,000 acres, that’s less than 100,000 hectares . . .

That‘s very small compared to many of the properties in your country. Anna Creek in South Australia is 2.4 million hectares

Edit: posting at the same time @Farmer Roy

 

[Farmer Roy]

That‘s very small compared to many of the properties in your country. Anna Creek in South Australia is 2.4 million hectares

haha yes - I just posted that.

As for private ownership, at one point Peter Sherwin owned 300,000 head of cattle & owned 1% of Australia’s landmass . . .

More locally, Ron Greentree ( you would of heard of him if you were around Moree back in the day ) was at one time the largest private ( not corporate ) wheat grower in the world, with over 100,000 acres grown

 

[Fake it ‘til you make it]

One Riggit Galloway outfit to the acre = ..............

Depending on where it is in US, could be one outfit to 50 acres or more

 

[Brisel]

haha yes - I just posted that.

As for private ownership, at one point Peter Sherwin owned 300,000 head of cattle & owned 1% of Australia’s landmass . . .

More locally, Ron Greentree ( you would of heard of him if you were around Moree back in the day ) was at one time the largest private ( not corporate ) wheat grower in the world, with over 100,000 acres grown

It‘s all relative. Anna Creek is listed as only carrying 9,500 cattle thanks to being on the edge of the Simpson Desert. Lots of farm units with far bigger numbers of head than that. I don’t remember Ron Greentree, but I didn’t get out much when I was there other than to the coast when it rained or the local bottle shop occasionally.

 

[Farmer Roy]

Who owns the most land in America? Jeff Bezos and John Malone are among them

The 50 individuals, families, and heirs on this list, compiled by 24/7 Wall St., own about 1.4% of the total landmass of the US.

eu.usatoday.com

John Malone owns 2.2million acres,
Ted Turner is second with 2million and the biggest private buffalo herd in the world at around 50,000head.
King ranch is 10th

that’s what I thought.

makes Bill Gates look like a bit of a nobody . . .

how does the original article then claim him to be the biggest ?

unless it’s purely arable, rather than agriculture in general, or something like that ?