When is a farmer a farmer?

Yep.

This is the commonly discussed threshold around here, $1000 gross.

And has no hair left on his or her head, deep wrinkles in their face, calloused hands...

Welcome to farming.

Around me locally, a farmer raises corn and soybeans for sale, might have some livestock.

Ranchers are out west somewhere and have more pasture than crop land.

Someone with 5 acres of pasture or land or garden would not, locally, be called a farmer. Hobby farmer, perhaps?

But I'm open to anyone raising some crops on some land to call themselves a farmer, I'm good with that.

Paul

I say it's when you depend on something you produce. Whether that dependence is for money, food, or fertilizer. In Iowa, many don't consider us "real" farmers because we're "only" running 200 acres, with much of that in CRP. But, we raise much of our own food and we make money selling the extra. Am I not a farmer because 99% of my income comes from milking cows for someone else? I don't sleep and I have callouses on my callouses, so I'd say I'm a farmer.

FWIW, I kinda feel like if someone keeps animals that are generally acceptable sources of meat, eats meat, but looks horrified when the concept of butchering comes up, it's not terrible to snicker to yourself if the refer to themselves as a farmer. But that's just me...

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www.morbidaffectation.blogspot.com

www.ladiesfarmjournal.blogspot.com

Thanks for the input to one and all. For me, it kind of comes down to whether or not I respect the advice and opinions of the individual. On HT, Highlands on swine, Agmantoo on cattle, Forerunner on microbes, to me they are worthy of the title farmer or rancher or what ever they prefer. And I don't mean to slight anyone else, it's just I've learned a great deal from or been inspired by each of them.

My reason for the thread was just because a few locals whose experience I find dubious, always seem to want to tell me how to do it right and sometimes I run out of patience and polite smiles as I ignore them.

My first time to pull into a toll booth on the Tri-State Tollway in Chicago in a van. I asked the atendant: "For the toll booths, which am I, a car or a truck....?" "Man, you are a human being!......., but you can go through the car booth in your van..."


I used to farm, so I am a farmer!


geo

Awesome thread. I haven't posted up in this section for awhile now. This thread title caught my eye because I am having a tough time with this issue on HT. I am discovering that many posters are giving advice without any experience. Except for a couple individuals, I pretty much ignore the opinions of the rest.

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm surrounded by folks like this in every area of my life!

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

I consider ourselves to be homesteaders and people who work on their land for their living to be farmers. People from the city, however, consider us a farm because we have livestock. We had a family reunion out here last summer, with a bunch of city types from California in attendance. They kept talking about "going to the farm", or "being at the farm", etc. I just giggled, because I don't see it that way. It's just my home.

My 12 year old daughter says we won't officially be a farm until we milk something.

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Watch the transformation from city mice to country mice, visit my webpage at Billy Joe's Food Farm


www.facebook.com/billyjoesfoodfarm

My urban in-laws live just outside the city on a quarter section. They think they live "on the farm" and are farmers. Makes me laugh, because they don't even have a garden, and have never done anything remotely related to farming in their entire lives. lol

Yes. We make a profit. It takes time to build up to that level and one needs to gain control of as many of the costs as possible:

We produce our own livestock from our breeder stock.

We produce most of the food our livestock eat. We avoid buying commercial hog feed or grains.

We don't hire employees - we do all the work on our farm ourselves.

We do our own deliveries and sell direct to stores, restaurants and individuals instead of at auction or to wholesalers. We avoid the commodity market like a plague.

We are about to do our own processing by building a USDA inspected meat processing facility. One more link in the chain brought on-farm, under our control and keeping the money at home.

Vertical integration is key, same as with other sorts of businesses. Just-in-Time manufacturing/farming is also really good - we avoid the seasonality of markets.

Finding our niche is probably the other big key. What we're good at that sells for a price that pays the bills including the mortgage.

Lastly, like what your'e doing and do what you like.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

I find the think to do is listen and think about what they have to say, how it fits with what I have experienced and what I know from other sources. I don't tend to take anyone's word as final, rather as informational.

One thing that is very important to keep in mind is that situations vary. What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another person. It's important to adapt and be flexible.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

i consider myself to be getting by. i have a garden, raise a pig or two a beef ocasionally chickens fish in 4 a pond and grass for hay. i consider my self more of a gardener than anything else.

at the risk of offending ranchers i would consider them to be grass farmers rather than ranchers. if thhey cant be successful as grass farmers and grow pasture or hay they cant be successful beef growers

wow! You do that on 1/2 an acre!? Amazing.

Kansfarmer
NONE of the ranchers here in NE Okla raise Feed per se for their cows and horses

If they grow wheat, They let the cows eat on it to a point, then thresh it later to sell.. NO horse ranchers grow wheat here

Most ranchers'll tell you God grows grass, they just manage it.
Generally speaking, ranchers don't dig in the dirt, that's what farmers do. And everyone knows "farm" is a four letter F word...

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

When I had a 40 in NE Kans I thought I was a farmer. I grew both row crops and seeded crops, I raised beef and milk cows, chickens

I moved here on a 20, and finally thought myself a farmer

I will HOPEFULLY be moving on over 8, and now I consider myself a homesteader.

~grinz~ Down here, the ranchers will tell you, "If you don't know soil, you can't raise hay. If you can't raise hay, you can't raise beef."

Ranchers around here don't raise grasses to *seed feed*, but they do till, disk, fertilize, sow or plant. Neighbor just had his fields disked and fertilized, and then seeded rye and clover. In February, he'll cut it for hay. He plans to plug in Tiftin 85 come March, if we get a good rain then. In May, he'll put his cattle on it.

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

Yep. Precisely my point.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

agreed, which is why I have to fight to overcome an emotional reaction to when someone is telling me the ONLY way to do it right.

~laughs~ They do that about every 5 years down here...as soon as pastures start growing more weeds than feed, they disk, fertilized, and then seed or plug. The Tiftin is pretty popular down here, and it can only be plugged.

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck