Great Western Ranch listed for $142 million by D.R. Horton's family

One of the largest ranches in the country is going on the market for $142 million.

The family behind home-building giant D.R. Horton is listing the Great Western Ranch, their roughly 500,000-acre cattle ranch in New Mexico. With approximately 790 square miles, the property spans more territory than the city of Houston. The listing follows company founder Donald Ray Horton’s death earlier this year.

Outside the rural community of Quemado near the Arizona state line, the Great Western’s ranch headquarters is about 150 miles from Albuquerque, according to listing agent Jeff Buerger of Hall and Hall.

There are also eight homes, including a primary lodge for guests and a ranch manager’s house, as well as an equipment shop, wells, barns and corrals for livestock.

The Great Western has about 225,600 deeded acres and roughly 276,800 leased acres, said Buerger. The Horton family leases some of the land to Black Mountain Outfitters, a company that provides trophy hunting guides.

There are currently 1,900 cow-calf pairs on the ranch; around 900 cows are available to be sold with the property.

While on the ranch, “I don’t know what the opposite of claustrophobia is, but that’s the feeling you get,” said Saulan, who spent time living on the property with his family. “We lived up on top of a hill, and we could see 28 miles to St. John, Ariz.”

At night, the lack of light pollution makes “you feel like you’re on another planet when you look at the stars,” said Buerger, who has also spent time on the ranch.

The ranch serves as a natural habitat for various wildlife including elk, deer, antelope, mountain lions and coyotes. The number of elk and other game has grown over the years because the ranch limits predators on its property. Maintaining an ecosystem as large as Great Western is “a balancing act,” according to Saulan.

D.R. Horton has been the largest U.S. home builder in terms of annual sales volume since 2002. The Texas-based company was founded in 1978 by Donald Horton who was born in rural Arkansas where his father T.J. Horton raised cattle.

Buerger noted that such large-scale beef production combined with trophy hunting makes this New Mexico ranch rare. Last year another New Mexico ranch with roughly 16,700 deeded acres sold after listing for $44 million.