Ranch vs Farm

[Ryder]

I always thought tanks were made out of metal.
A hole where cattle drink water is a water hole.
They can also get water in a creek. Also can get water from a branch if it is not dried up.

We can also get into discussing swimming holes.
But I will leave that to others if anyone is interested.

 

[ChrisB]

Dugout if man made, pond if naturally occurring, lake is over 10 acres according to MN DNR, and tanks are small and moveable.

 

[Ky hills]

I always thought tanks were made out of metal.
A hole where cattle drink water is a water hole.
They can also get water in a creek. Also can get water from a branch if it is not dried up.

We can also get into discussing swimming holes.
But I will leave that to others if anyone is interested.

We use the term branch in the same way right now our branches are full and running with water later on in summer will probably be dry. Sometimes a real small pond is called a pool.
Here tanks are galvanized metal or plastic and moveable

 

[greybeard]

I guess it depends whether one is a farmer or rancher.. :hide:
the stock tank


https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/cfd02

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugout_(shelter)

 

[HDRider]

Tank

 

[shaz]

I call my place a mud hole

 

[Ryder]

I have heard some call their "place" a "money pit" or an "endless hole".

 

[farmerjan]

Most in the east are called farms. Most farms had several different things like animals, crops, pasture for grazing. Farms were also known to have fences more often in the older accounts.

Most places in the west and southern states like Texas, were considered ranches that basically only had grazing animals. Ranches were also thought of as much larger tracts of land that were not suited for plowing and growing of row crops.

In the northeast, there are brooks and streams and rivers and ponds and lakes. Ponds and lakes can both be natural and man-made. Here in Va there are creeks instead of brooks or streams, ponds are mostly considered man made and lakes are either man or natural made. Tanks are mostly all man made material that contains water.

I have often read that tanks in the west were also naturally occurring places where water would accumulate after rains, like in stone or rock formations. Often in desert settings you will read of the indians knowing of tanks where water can be found certain times of the year.

 

[Nesikep]

What Lucky said.. a ranch is exclusively livestock, especially cattle
a farm has other crops

Ryder, no, it's not a creek, it's a crick!

 

[herofan]

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.

 

[ga.prime]

I've never heard anybody in Georgia call their place a ranch. Plantation maybe.

 

[greybeard]

I always thought tanks were made out of metal.
A hole where cattle drink water is a water hole.
They can also get water in a creek. Also can get water from a branch if it is not dried up.

hueco

 

[greggy]

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).

I always thought of a ranch as something open and wild in the US, somewhere John Wayne would have been at home riding a horse around on, not necessarily a "farm", Wiki says anything can be a ranch apparently, so there goes my vision perhaps.

 

[Chevy]

Lots of people moving out here from the city have acquired themselves ranchettes. Most usually under 2 acres and will stack 4 to 6 horses on them. Even seen a few real estate persons advertising that way.

Oh no!!

 

[callmefence]

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.
A farm grows crops.
A ranch , cattle sheep or goats on a property large enough that from the center you can't see the boundary. Anything less is a place.

 

[Lucky]

A man from New Mexico said they call pools "drinkers" then ask why we put all our gates in mudholes? Anything less than than 1,500-2,000 is called a place around here.

 

[f1tiger]

The most famous chicken ranch in Texas was in LaGrange Texas , It was shut down in early 1970s by Marvin Zinler {eye witness news out of Houston] many Texas boys lost their front teeth there..stand up and testify

 

[gcreekrch]

Before you can be a rancher you have to be a grass manager and to do that you might have to do a little farming.................

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Only ranches around here are horse ranches, and cityslickers calling their 4 acre plot with 4 goats, and a worn out jersey, a ranch.

 

[MO-Ruminants]

Doesn't anyone say "place" anymore?