Farm or Ranch?

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Farm or Ranch?

  • Farm

    Votes: 37 72.5%
  • Ranch

    Votes: 14 27.5%

  • Total voters
    51

MO_cows

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Do you call your place a farm or a ranch and why? I always think of, and refer to, our place as a farm, even though we don't raise crops. A ranch, to me, seems to imply a larger piece of land and cattle work done horseback. Yet I have heard other people refer to a place as small as 10 acres as a "ranch".

Or is it a matter of goegraphy, if it's in Colorado it's a ranch, but if it's in Wisconsin, it's a farm?? Or is it just personal preference??
 
I call my place a farm. Because there really is just cows and crops, and nothing much else to deem it a "ranch".

There was a similar discussion on this a while ago and it generated quite the discussion.....
 
I own farm. We do not have horses so it's not a ranch. My main "crop" is cattle and we ship them out for "harvest" on semis once a year.
 
MO_cows":2747hmoc said:
Do you call your place a farm or a ranch and why? I always think of, and refer to, our place as a farm, even though we don't raise crops. A ranch, to me, seems to imply a larger piece of land and cattle work done horseback. Yet I have heard other people refer to a place as small as 10 acres as a "ranch".

Or is it a matter of goegraphy, if it's in Colorado it's a ranch, but if it's in Wisconsin, it's a farm?? Or is it just personal preference??

I think you can call it whatever you want but personally I view it about like you do.
 
Well my Grandma ( God rest her soul) always said if you don't have crops you are a rancher..

So I guess I am a rancher as all we have is pasture and hay land. We have horses but I would rather hop on the quad or use my own two legs when working and checking cattle. As I have gotten older the distance from the back of the horse to the ground gives me the willy's..plus the quad is easier to catch.. :lol2:
 
MO_cows":1deg44ez said:
Yet I have heard other people refer to a place as small as 10 acres as a "ranch".


boy you are right there. It seems like people are willing to refer to anything as a ranch haha. I think if you are in the city, people refer to any land they own as a ranch. If your in the country they call them farms. Thats my experience.
 
In my neck of the woods a ranch would have a few types of livestock.

As far as no crops being a ranch how many times have you heard of a dairy ranch. I have never heard that.

IMO it's all in where you grow up to what you call stuff.
 
MO_cows":1jnxdpao said:
Do you call your place a farm or a ranch and why? I always think of, and refer to, our place as a farm, even though we don't raise crops. A ranch, to me, seems to imply a larger piece of land and cattle work done horseback. Yet I have heard other people refer to a place as small as 10 acres as a "ranch".

Or is it a matter of goegraphy, if it's in Colorado it's a ranch, but if it's in Wisconsin, it's a farm?? Or is it just personal preference??

That is exactly what we call ours and what we think about the 'subject"
 
I'd only consider it a ranch if its 500+ acres and is pretty much all in pasture and hay fields, with up to 10% of its acreage in row crop production.

This is pretty much how I see it. If it's under 500 acres it's typically a farm. Anything over 500 acres that produces more row crops than it really needs to support its animals is a farm.
 
In the desert since we only had a few deeded acres the rest being BLM, etc., I called it "the place" (as in, drop by the place for dinner), here I call it a farm.
 
I call my place a farm for a couple of reasons. I lease many different farms - over 400 acres of land - and most of it is not grazed but farmed in crops, and I am out East here and hardly anyone out here calls a place a ranch so I really think it is more of a regional thing because I think if I were out west I would be called a rancher because all as I do is hay and cattle and from what I see when I am out West is that the same operations as mine are called ranches. I think most people would laugh at me if I called myself a rancher around here.
 
hayray":2js7s1a4 said:
I call my place a farm for a couple of reasons. I lease many different farms - over 400 acres of land - and most of it is not grazed but farmed in crops, and I am out East here and hardly anyone out here calls a place a ranch so I really think it is more of a regional thing because I think if I were out west I would be called a rancher because all as I do is hay and cattle and from what I see when I am out West is that the same operations as mine are called ranches. I think most people would laugh at me if I called myself a rancher around here.

hayway, will agree with you. In our area we were call hillbilly stump farmers for many years. Now most people think we are environmental wreckers.
 
The farm is crops and the ranch is critters doesn;t work out either. In the desert, 2500 acres of alfalfa with no livestock was called a ranch.
 
Having horses has nothing to do with ranching.
I'm a rancher and I don't have horses. :nod:
Real working ranches are more prevalent in the western states. I have a couple friends that farm in the Yellowstone River bottoms in Montana. They will correct you if you would call them ranchers. They would want you to know they are farmers.
On the other hand I am friends wilh a couple big cow calf people. Running total 1500 mother cows. They put up hay and dry land small grain. They are definitely ranchers. And you guessed it :cowboy: NOT A HORSE ON THE PLACE.
 
mnmtranching":1a25kd52 said:
On the other hand I am friends wilh a couple big cow calf people. Running total 1500 mother cows. They put up hay and dry land small grain. They are definitely ranchers. And you guessed it NOT A HORSE ON THE PLACE.

But the High Chaperell, Big Valley and Bonanza all had horses and they were definitely ranches. :mrgreen: Sorry, horses scare me. When I was twelve or so I saw a man killed by one. Never got over it. Last week I cut a horse out of some woven fence. He had his hind legs all tangled up in the wire. I was scared to death cutting those hooves of death out of the fence but I figured it needed to be done and no one else was there to do it.
 
Iluvabeef,

I also remember the previous post, the conversation went just about the same way. I have a ranch.... why, that's what I wanted to put all my money into, not a farm.

I liked the post about having horses and using the quad or legs to check cattle. My thoughts was to check and move cattle using my faithful QH gelding.... but as it turned out all I have to do is walk to a gate or call the cattle and they come to me. Not sure but I think my gelding chuckles at this when he see this. :)

Alan (buying and building a 70 acre Hereford and Quarter Horse RANCH) :D
 
Skunk and worm farm. You can call it a skunk ranchette if you prefer...
 
I always thought it was a farm if you were in the east and a ranch if you were out west....who knows :?
 

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