Ranch vs Farm

[herofan]

Good question.

I see lot of people on youtube in US with a few acres saying they have a ranch....

Frankly, even a hundred acres here is not a farm, that is a lifestyle or residential block, a farm really needs to be thousands, or hundreds of thousands of acres.

Sometimes small blocks like 5, 10, 40 acre etc are called "hobby farms"

I suppose the difference here is a farm is a commercial business, anything else is a hobby, a liability, and lifestyle choice. You need something to keep the grass down, unless you like burning fossil fuels and goin round in circles all the time (not me).

Interesting. One hundred acres here would be called a farm. I'm not sure what the minimum acres would be here to call it a farm. I suppose it depends on how one uses it as well. If it were just 100 acres just sitting there with no barns or livestock, one might just say they own some land or "I own 100 acres." If one is doing farm activities, however, it would be called a farm.

I'm sure nobody is making a living here with 100 acres today, but in my grandparent's day they did, and that land is still called a farm today.

 

[greggy]

Intensive farming would make money on 100 or less....dedicated feedlot for beef for eg. Or chickens for eggs or meat....

If not doing it as a business, then it is by def a hobby or liability, so is a lifestyle, not a farming operation.

Due to drought and other issues, our govt has been giving assistance to "farmers", things like hay given, funds via cheap loans etc, but, you only qualify to apply if your a business, a business has the goal of profit.....so your not considered a farmer unless your a commercial operation. Here that is.

 

[herofan]

Intensive farming would make money on 100 or less....dedicated feedlot for beef for eg. Or chickens for eggs or meat....

If not doing it as a business, then it is by def a hobby or liability, so is a lifestyle, not a farming operation.

That's probably true. I was just thinking in terms of how my grandparent's generation did it around here. They made a living on 100 acres with a few cows and a few acres of tobacco and corn.

 

[HDRider]

Intensive farming would make money on 100 or less....dedicated feedlot for beef for eg. Or chickens for eggs or meat....

If not doing it as a business, then it is by def a hobby or liability, so is a lifestyle, not a farming operation.

That's probably true. I was just thinking in terms of how my grandparent's generation did it around here. They made a living on 100 acres with a few cows and a few acres of tobacco and corn.

Sadly, long gone.

 

[greggy]

Just cattle, mmm, hard to be a business.

If you have really good dirt, and have various other things going, you may be able to survive.... but the more dirt, the more practical. I think it is very hard to just do one thing, unless, you were raising prize bulls and heifers....

 

[Chevy]

https://youtu.be/PDrFDnqde54

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

I'm just outside of town surrounded by 1/5 acre lots . We're known as the farm.!!

 

[herofan]

If I recall correctly, there was a thread a few years ago of people expressing that they didn't like the term "hobby farm." The view was that one is farming or they are not. After reading this thread, it seems it's not such a dirty term anymore.

 

[callmefence]

I always tell the wife I'm a hobby farmer
That way I'm not expected to make any money at it.
Told her I could have worse Hobby's. Like hanging round strip clubs.... she says that might be better. You could get through the day with a pocket full of dollar bills instead of a pocket full of hundreds..................

 

[cowgirl8]

If I recall correctly, there was a thread a few years ago of people expressing that they didn't like the term "hobby farm." The view was that one is farming or they are not. After reading this thread, it seems it's not such a dirty term anymore.

So am I off the hook?

 

[callmefence]

If I recall correctly, there was a thread a few years ago of people expressing that they didn't like the term "hobby farm." The view was that one is farming or they are not. After reading this thread, it seems it's not such a dirty term anymore.

So am I off the hook?

Nope , their still pretty ****ed up about it.

 

[Chevy]

People would make fun of you where I live if you called your place a ranch.

Yes they would. It's a farm here in Ky.

I agree. Like I said my mother for some reason has in her head it's a ranch. :hide:

 

[Ky cowboy]

Around here I'd say you get the look if you say you have a ranch and you run cattle on less than 1,200 acres. A farm is a bigger place with lots of tractors, grain bins, pivots, and such. For the most part though a Ranch has cattle and a Farm has crops.

The bigger question is what do you call the hole in the ground that cattle drink out of? and how many acres does it need to be before it qualifies as a lake?

If you cant cast across it, it's a lake. That's not right but has been my go to

 

[herofan]

A hole in the ground that cattle drink out of is a tank. If it has and needs a dam to collect and retain the water it's a pond.

That's incorrect.
If it's man-made it's a tank , if it's natural it's a pond. Not really that complicated.

That makes it complicated in Ky. I never heard any kind of water hole called a tank in my life, and we use dozers to dig ponds all the time.

 

[ccr]

That's what we call them in Texas. We dig a hole in a creek, build a dam, and call it a tank.

 

[Silver]

Until I got on this board I'd never heard of a hole in the ground with water in it called a tank. If the hole was dug out mechanically it's obviously a dugout. Or a scoop out. Water tanks are for hauling water.
Ranches are places where folks make their living off of cattle.
None of this seems that complicated lol

 

[ccr]

It's cool how words or terms from different areas mean different things.

I thought a dugout was where the baseball team stays when not on the field. A scoop refers to ice cream on a cone. :nod:

 

[callmefence]

Until I got on this board I'd never heard of a hole in the ground with water in it called a tank. If the hole was dug out mechanically it's obviously a dugout. Or a scoop out. Water tanks are for hauling water.
Ranches are places where folks make their living off of cattle.
None of this seems that complicated lol

I'd never seen cattle drink out of a toilet type contraption with a motion sensor....

 

[callmefence]

Until I got on this board I'd never heard of a hole in the ground with water in it called a tank. If the hole was dug out mechanically it's obviously a dugout. Or a scoop out. Water tanks are for hauling water.
Ranches are places where folks make their living off of cattle.
None of this seems that complicated lol

I'd never seen cattle drink out of a toilet type contraption with a motion sensor....

 

[Silver]

Until I got on this board I'd never heard of a hole in the ground with water in it called a tank. If the hole was dug out mechanically it's obviously a dugout. Or a scoop out. Water tanks are for hauling water.
Ranches are places where folks make their living off of cattle.
None of this seems that complicated lol

I'd never seen cattle drink out of a toilet type contraption with a motion sensor....

Northern cattle tend to me pretty sophisticated.