Is it a farm or a ranch?

[TxMex]

What do you consider a ranch? At what point does a piece of property stop being called a farm and is called a ranch? Is it what is raised on it that defines what it is called or is it the size of the property that defines the definition?

I grew up on well over 1,000 acres of cattle ranch. I know it is a ranch. You couldn't call it anything else, but what about 500 acres? 200 acres? 50 acres?

[Rectifier]

Animals on pasture, open grazing: ranch
Vegetable/grain crops: farm
Animals in confinement: also farm

I tend to think if animals must be rounded up that makes you a ranch.

We are 1/4 grain, 1/4 hay, 1/2 native pasture. Hard to define, I often refer to us as farm and ranch or diversified farm.

[farmerDale]

IMO, a ranch is HOW the farm is run, not the size or the number of head. To me it is the METHOD used... You could raise 10 000 beef on fairly small acreage, but you are carrying feed to them, so it is a farm.

In a dry area, you may need 1000 acres or much more, to produce enough grazing for 100 head. But if you are letting the critters pick up their own feed for most of the year, it is a ranch.

That being said, in my mind, a ranch does certainly conjure up images of 10's of thousands of acres in the foothills of the rockies. This perception tells me 1000 acres is a farm, or a very small ranch.

It depends on where it is, and what perceptions are of a ranch vs. farm. For me from here, it is HOW the animals are raised, more so than numbers. Others will have different ideas. I simply do not think there is a one size fits all definition.

Some may think 1000 acres is a pretty big tract. Others may realize compared to some areas, that is very, very small acreage. Same kind of perception, which will vary person to person...

[LoonyK]

I think they are just general terms and where a person grows up. I don't hear the term ranch around here.

[ginny63]

Years ago, someone was interviewing Chuck Conners, the actor. He said he couldn't stand to have a weed on his place. A man after my heart....no weeds. They talked some more and he had his house, guest house, pool house and stables on his ranch land. Talked some more, he said his ranch in CA. was 3 1/2 acres. I think it is location, location.

[joebill]

Right where i am, it takes about 100 acres to feed a cow and calf, and several NM ranches top 300 thousand acres.

The term that made me shudder and smirk back in the 70's was the realators calling 1 acre lots "ranchettes"

Small cattle growers around here often say "we have a place out South of here where we run some cattle", not claiming the vanity of the word "ranch", because it's only maybe a couple of hundred acres and they have jobs in town, too.

On the other hand, the Gray ranch down the road from me is 502 square miles. No question, that is a RANCH......Joe

[SFM in KY]

Location and management. There are some small 'ranches' in Montana and Wyoming that I would still consider ranches ... with the subdivisions popping up everywhere in the west, I do not consider 5 or 10 acres in a subdivision a ranch, no matter what the real estate ads call them!

I run as many horses here on 15 acres as I ran in MT on several hundred acres. This is a farm ... the place in MT was a ranch. I don't know as I've ever seen anyplace east of the Mississippi that I would actually think of as a ranch, regardless of acreage.

[ldc]

I've been told that East of the Mississippi River, it's a farm; West of the river, it's a ranch! With exceptions!

[where I want to]

Yeah it's location. Here there are dozens of "dairy ranches."

[Vosey]

I grew up in Maine, you never heard the term 'ranch', only farm. In Oregon I've only heard the term farm used if it is exclusively growing vegetables. If there's animals it's a ranch.

My brother had 100's of head of beef cows (as compared to dairy, not called cattle there) on hundreds of acre of pasture in Maine. When I tell someone here about him, they say he is a rancher and I say no, he is a farmer!

[Darren]

You don't hear the term ranch in WV. The biggest landowners, one or two, in this county running cattle are in the thousand acre ballpark. If you had over 600 acres you'd be one of the top five landowners.

[RedDirt Cowgirl]

Isn't it more a specialized stock thing? Chicken Ranch, Apple Ranch, Horse Ranch. But I've never heard of a hog ranch, it's hog farm.
There must be an element of self-sustaining size - around here for cattle it's 600 acres, or you're designated a hobby-ranch/farm. There's farm land and ranch land, which generally can't be farmed. But most old cattle ranches cut hay. I think to the government we're all farms.

[SueMc]

Originally Posted by ldc

I've been told that East of the Mississippi River, it's a farm; West of the river, it's a ranch! With exceptions!

I always thought it was regional like this also, but have seen ranches in Louisiana that are called ranches and certainly seem more like ranches than farms.....cattle that get rounded up, cowboys, some even rodeo stars.

Bottom line though, if it's mine it will be what ever I decide to call it!

[where I want to]

Maybe if you wear a cowboy hat, you have a ranch. Otherwise you have a farm.....

[unregistered5595]

A farm has any vegetables/fruit and/or animals on it.
A ranch is the type of dressing that is served over the fruit/vegetables.
Ranch is in a 'Hidden Valley'.

Everything else is just marketing. More ego, less substance.

[Conhntr]

In virginia. No ranches here just farms and plantations! I have never heard of any land here regardless of size refered to As a ranch

[Callieslamb]

If you're from the west, you say "ranch". If you are from the east or England you say, "farm" or "mixed farm". In my vocabulary, a ranch has animals only. A farm grows plants and a mixed farm has both. On line, we call is a homestead. My family and I call it "home".

[pottypigeon]

In Australia it is always a farm!

[CurtisWilliams]

My understanding is that if the primary product is animals, it is a ranch. If the primary product is plants it is a farm. And if the primary product is self sufficiency, it is a homestead.

[big rockpile]

Around here a place can be a Farm for last 100 years then be sold it becomes a Ranch

I worked years ago as a Cowboy on couple Ranches that had thousands of acres raising Cattle and Horses.

I had 95 acres we had few Head of Cattle but most we raised was for our own use. I considered it a Farm.

Had 20 acres in middle of no where, we cleared brush by hand, put up a shelter, over years put up other buildings and Fenced it. Raised mostly for our own use but considered it a Homestead.

We have 3.5 acres here, House, buildings, Raise most we need but consider it a House on a Lot.

big rockpile