Farm or Ranch??

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

Just wondering what your opinions are on the whole "Farm" or "Ranch" title....

What differentiates the two?

I live in northern MD, which is very much a "farm" area to me in spite of all the growth along the suburban lines, but the "(insert fancy name here) Ranch" decal I saw across the back of some guys pickup truck on the way to work this morning got me to wondering about this.....as I followed him to job in "the city".....
To me, we have plnety of "farms", but not any places I would call a ranch....heck the biggest operation in the area that has hundreds and hundreds of acres, huge amounts of equipment / livestock and probalby 20 fulltime employees it still called a "farm"..... to me, that pickup I saw is just some guy with money to burn that has some land and messes with horses, but I know your not suposed to "judge":laughing:

 

[weldingisfun]

IMHO, if you own it you can call it whatever you want. I call my place a farm. Why? Because it is mine and I want to call it a farm. The place next to me is called a ranch.

 

[texasjohn]

Weldingisfun is right, you own it, you can name it.

Traditionally, in Texas, if your predominant activity is aimed at raising stuff with feet, then it's a ranch.... you know, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, deer, etc. In this pursuit, you can have tractors and even raise crops aimed at feeding your animals...oats, hay, feed, etc.

A farm is where your predominant activity is to raise crops for sale, typically row crops...corn, milo, cotton, peanuts, etc. You may have animals which clean up the fields or maintain waterways, but are not your primary income focus.

Put another way, a farmer wears seed caps, a rancher wears a cowboy hat.

Then, there are the gray areas. In my mind, you have
catfish farms
chicken farms
turkey farms
worm farms

Regardless, there are always the Great Pretenders....those who are "all hat and no cows," they talk a lot but don't really do anything. They may or may not have any critters, money, land or equipment. What is common is that they have an exaggerated opinion of themselves and only a shallow understanding of the complex natural processes in play on their property and how their activities impede, exploit or benefit those processes.

 

[jimmyj]

I think of it as follows:

If you grow stuff, it's a farm. Even if you have animals.

If you only have animals, it's a ranch.

You could call it a fanch and start a new trend.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Call it what you want but depending on where you live, your neighbors just might describe you as being a little odd. Around me, I notice some of the larger operations have signs saying "such and such Farm" while most don't have nothing. I guess in that case, you can call them whatever you want, LOL!

 

[GGB]

Texasjohn beat me to the punch (or keyboard). We jokingly refer to the land we bought next to our home place as the intergalactic headquarters of the "Allhat Cattle Company Ranch". You know, like the big talking fella from (fill in the state of your choice) who is all hat and no cattle!

This ground is zoned agriculture, and hopefully when the native grasses get reestablished in a few years, we will be able to have it baled. Our next door neighbor does have cattle, and he bales right next door to ours, and would be pretty cost effective for him to do if he wants the hay. Too small for anyone else to come in otherwise.

For the record, we do have a family farm we are actively involved with-we were up just the weekend before last to help burn some CRP ground we have in the WHIP program. Up home, we also think of folks who are primarily in the cattle business as ranchers/ranches, and folks who primarily have broke ground and grow crops as farmers/farms. We have cattle (small cow/calf operation), but our principal activity is a wheat/corn/soybeans rotation. So we think of ourselves as "farmers". Folks usually refer to the owner's operation the way the owner refers to it. I do have my share of seed caps, and a few cowboy hats too.

Call me anything you want, just don't call me late for supper!!!

GGB

 

[300UGUY]

Here in Michigan, the tradition is to call everything a farm, even if they raise beef cows.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Here in Michigan, the tradition is to call everything a farm, even if they raise beef cows.

That's how it always was in East Texas. When I first came here it puzzled me that my inlaws raised cattle but called the place a farm as did their neighbors. Over the last 25 years or so that has changed. With new people moving into the area we've seen a lot more "ranches" spring up. I guess that it's a lot more romantic to be called a rancher that anything so mundane as a cattle farmer.

 

[jinman]

All I gotta say is, "The farmer and the cowman should be friends."

 

[DAY]

Speaking of names-stop me if you've heard this one!- three Texans are bragging on their "spreads". Number one says, "I got twelve thousand acres, I call it the Double Bar R.":thumbsup:
Number Two says, "I got twenty thousand acres, I call it the Lazy Z."
They turn to Number three, ask, "How many acres you got?"
"Thirty."
"Thirty! What you call a little bitty place like that?":laughing:
"Downtown Dallas."