Farmer or Rancher

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nap

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This a semi-serious question but when someone asks you how do you respond farmer or rancher. I retired two years ago as a university professor and am now devoting full-time to a cattle enterprise. Many people I've known from my previous life ask me what i am doing. How do I respond? Farmer and rancher have different connotations to me. How about you? I guess I could say cattleman put that sounds a little ostentatious if not sexist.
 
You're not truck farming :D :D

Somehow stuck in my head ranching involves solely livestock. Cattle or horse ranch etc.

Lots of folks used to farm peanuts around here and they ran cattle too. They planted crops and referred to that as farming.

An engineer peer bought an old "ranch house" in the north-east and it wasn't anything like I thought. It was just a house on a hill and all one floor. They call that a ranch house. I always thought of a ranch house as the big one on the hill that was usually three stories or so. All the yankees claimed I was wrong about that. Whatever.

Now the real estate folks are selling 8 acre "Ranchettes". I guess "Farmettes" don't sound as appealing :D

My brain is likely twisted on everything but I see farming and ranching as two different things. Of course, I still think of Country and Western as two different things too.
 
Call it what you want to call it. You are paying for it.
I call myself a farmer and a cattleman. Farm is far more common around here, but ranches aren't unheard of. There is no real definition of either term.
 
Frame of mind. You think a farmer is just a poor old dirt farmer but the rancher has a 10,000 acre spred and a hundred cattle. :lol: You are what you want to be, maybe a farmer/rancher. :D
 
VanC":2q7jybez said:
ga. prime":2q7jybez said:
Nobody around this area uses the term ranch or rancher.

Same here. You might be a cattle farmer, hog farmer, crop farmer, or whatever, but it's always farmer.

Same here. I've always thought of ranches as a western thing where there are vast expanses of land even if its not yours. Of course I don't really think there is a rule. You can call it whatever. Calling yourself a rancher nowadays might be politically incorrect. Might want to say you are a livestock care-provider.
 
VanC":1izxg4mf said:
ga. prime":1izxg4mf said:
Nobody around this area uses the term ranch or rancher.

Same here. You might be a cattle farmer, hog farmer, crop farmer, or whatever, but it's always farmer.

Same here . I always figured east of the Mississippi was farmer, west of the Mississippi tended to be ranchers . I don't guess it makes much difference .

Larry
 
It's funny here.
On this side of the lake, we are cattle producers. We farm. Very little crop land, mostly for our own feed. On the other side of the lake, where there are only about 4 farms, they are called cattle producers, but also ranches.
To us we are cattle producers, as well as beekeepers, or honey producers, and up until 2 weeks ago, egg producers.
Funny how each area has their own name for something we all do. Farming, ranching, some type of producer, it's all the same thing. But, no matter what we call ourselves. we all have to love what we are doing because we all pay a pile of inputs prices that nearly break us, and have our prices dictated to us by some putz or group of putzs in an office.
 
rockridgecattle":1gnccld8 said:
It's funny here.
On this side of the lake, we are cattle producers. We farm. Very little crop land, mostly for our own feed. On the other side of the lake, where there are only about 4 farms, they are called cattle producers, but also ranches.
To us we are cattle producers, as well as beekeepers, or honey producers, and up until 2 weeks ago, egg producers.
Funny how each area has their own name for something we all do. Farming, ranching, some type of producer, it's all the same thing. But, no matter what we call ourselves. we all have to love what we are doing because we all pay a pile of inputs prices that nearly break us, and have our prices dictated to us by some putz or group of putzs in an office.

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I like the term cattle producer, it seems to get right to the heart of the matter and leaves little doubt about what you are doing for a living.
 
nap said:
it seems to get right to the heart of the matter and leaves little doubt about what you are doing for a living.[/quote]
:???: I thought we did to spread the wealth, be your own master, feed the world cheap. Didn't know we were supposed to make a living at it. :shock: :p :lol:
 
When I registered my business name I called it Thigpen Farms and when folks ask me what I grow I tell them cattle. The response is usually "oh, it's a ranch". Well, yea, it might be called a ranch since I raise cattle. Like BHB said, I think of a ranch as someplace where only raising cattle (or horses or other livestock) is conducted. I do grow hay, sometimes I grow corn, oats, winter wheat, etc but everything is in support of the cattle end of the business.

Sometimes I think the real estate folks have tainted the name "ranch" because some of them use that term to describe a piece of land more than a 50' X 150' lot. Two lots that size is called a "ranchette" and I've heard the word "ranch" associated with a piece of land (in California) less than one acre in size. So maybe size matters, I don't know.

If you deal with livestock I see absolutely nothing wrong in describing your place as a ranch. I think for most folks if you used that word they would get the picture in their minds eye that you were somehow involved with raising "farm" animals.
 
VanC":1anmdhnl said:
ga. prime":1anmdhnl said:
Nobody around this area uses the term ranch or rancher.

Same here. You might be a cattle farmer, hog farmer, crop farmer, or whatever, but it's always farmer.

Exact same here. We are a predominantly row crop here, but go 100 miles west, and things start to change pretty fast with more and more cattle. I prefer to be called a cattleman, but I also row crop to. Guess I am a row croppin' cattleman.
 
It's your place, call it anything you want. When all is said and done, unless you have 100% range, if you manage your pastures at all you're a grass FARMER
 
calve's are a crop. hay crop, "grass farmers" as folks like too say. i do all the work,carpenter,cowboy,the majority of the time the vet.work a regular job. the term rancher is what i prefer...truth is, i dont know what the he$% i am. or why i keep doing it ;-)
 

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