When is a farmer a farmer?

Wow, I'm lucky if the snow is gone by May for the grass to be good enough to let the cattle on....

I mean, I can dream the snow is gone by the end of March, but temps usually aren't up enough for the grass to grow any to allow grazing of it before mid May.

Cutting it in February????? I'd have to sweep the snow off. Planting now???? Can't get through the frost...

But then, I typically get some rain and growth during the summer, not burn up like you likely do....

--->Paul

~chuckles~ Valentine's Day is our date for setting out the cool weather crops, such as cabbage and spinach. A lot of us start them indoors in January.

A couple of winters ago, we had a bad freeze with snow and ice, froze the pipes in half the county. I was complaining to a friend in Boston, and she said, "We get those temps normally...but it is not FAIR! YOU have to deal with months of 100 degree weather, you shouldn't have to have the cold too!"

~grinz~ But I have been up in MN, and ya'll's autumns are lovely....and you don't have to worry about having enough hay to feed in midsummer!

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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

What he was getting at Calliann was that the rancher was going to HAVE SOMONE ELSE DO THE DIRT WORK, RATHER THAN HE HIMSELF DO IT ALL..
Farmers generally do it all. Ranchers do not generally.

A lot of the farming here involves pruning vines and apple limbs, not tending rows of corn and beans. Some of the harvest equipment is pretty unusual---cherry tree shakers, grape pickers that have the tractor high in the air to straddle the rows--and then, there are a lot of ladders involved in hand picking the apples. And homemade rigs for sitting right over the top of the ground to snap the asparagus spears. And pickle harvestors, too, and brine tanks out in the middle of the pickle "farm". My neighbor, once when fruit prices fell off, exclaimed, with fear in his voice, "Gosh, I may have to learn how to grow wheat!"

geo

My grandpa always said a farmer was just a feller with a strong back and a weak mind.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

I still dont get it....Farms in Minnesota are called sheep farms, dairy farms etc...I've never heard of Mutton ranchers or milk wrangler ranch.

So why are they called farms? and if you raise cattle they are called ranches? Ranchers also grow corn, and many other hays for feeding their livestock. Dont sheep and dairy cows eat the same items as beef cattle? And both are grown by the farmer and rancher.

I think it's just a preferrence, of what the indivdual wants to be called.
But it would be nice to know if there is a legit explanation and destinction between the two.

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"If you tickle the earth with a hoe she laughs with a harvest."
- Douglas William Jerrold

Real is Beautiful -Sherry in Maine

I am 47

Dairies are indeed farms, no matter where they're at.

I guarantee if you were to call a Wyoming sheep rancher a "farmer" he'd give you an annoyed look, though.
And if you have a "rancher" feeding corn to his cattle, he's most likely either a farmer or a feedlot.
Nor do I have the foggiest clue what they prefer in Minnesota. I've never lived that far east...

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

I once read what I felt was the most excellent definition of a farmer vs. a rancher. A farmer who raises cattle, often either does so on a smaller scale, in yards or smaller pastures, and hand feeds them a fair proportion of the year.

A rancher is someone who raises livestock who makes the stock do the bulk of the work. He often has larger tracts of less productive land( but not always), but the TYPE of raising is more what makes a rancher a rancher. He lets the animals wander on these larger tracts, and rarely relies on hand feeding them, except in more norther climates like mine, where it is a must due to the snow pack that accumulates for months at a time.

A farmer collects and spreads manure, a rancher lets the animals do the spreading. A farmer would lamb in buildings in the dead of winter, a rancher would lamb when the grass starts to grow. A farmer would BUILD shelters for his stock, and the pastures would be empty in the winter, while the rancher would leave the animals on pasture, and bale graze, or swath graze.

Ranching is often a more holistic, natural approach with lower cash inputs than a farm. There is usually lower productivity per acre on a ranch than a farm, but the cash costs is much less.

For me, the bottom line is if you house animals, and rely on lots of stockpiled feed, tractor power, and bought or produced grains, you are probably an animal farm. If your animals do not rely on you for housing, do not eat a lot of grain, do not rely on much tractor power, well, you probably are a rancher.

Here is a confusing one for you...

I am a grain farmer, but am building a sheep flock, which I plan to raise in a ranch style. Will I still be a farmer, or will I be a rancher? Or will I be both? Time will tell, lol!

When we lived in town we had an elderly neighbor, the widow of a farmer. She raised a huge garden, put up what she needed and gave the rest away, supplied food to a lot of folks, willingly taught interested people how to can and preserve. She called herself a farmer, of the garden sort..............I would be the last to tell her any different. To me she was a very special kind of farmer, one like the world needs more of.

Dale, if you are raising sheep then you become a shepard, how's that for confusing the issue.

I don't believe there is much difference between a rancher, farmer, etc. Mostly it is regional, language types, and such. The true answer to "is he a farmer" is what is in the man's heart. The video Haypoint posted says it well. The guys and gals that care for livestock and work the soil, no matter if it's 10 or 10,000 acres are a different breed of cat. I was raised by a farmer and realize the value of that up bringing and the education in life I received working day in and day out with the man.

Thanks Betsy, for further confusing my identity. Will I ever find out who I really am? lol

Our only sale product that most people see is meat from livestock. We make our living that way. We grow pasture (grasses, cloves, etc) which the livestock go out and gather themselves. In the process they spread their manure. I don't shovel sheeeet and I don't gather pasture (in the warm months - for winter we have winter hay). By your definition we're ranchers.

But I'm a farmer. That's the term I use. Which term you use for yourself is a matter of personal choice. I choose to use the more general term 'farm' rather than ranch.

Ranch is a term applied just to livestock raising. Farm is a term applied to those who raise a wide variety of possible things including but not limited to livestock, vegetables, grains, fruit, nuts, etc. Thus farm is the more general term and encompasses ranches as well.

Our farm is named Sugar Mountain Farm. That's what people call farms in the east. They don't tend to call them ranches. The term ranch is used more in the west than in the east. We're in the east and virtually nobody calls themselves a rancher even if all they do is raise cattle. If you call a farmer in the east a rancher, even though all he raises is cattle, he'll look at you odd and wonder what pretenses you're putting on.

Call yourself what ever you like but just don't call me late for dinner.

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

Could a person who grows medical marijuana be called a farmer?

geo

The first year of the Michigan State Lottery all of the big winners would get a huge check and it would be on telivision.
I will always remember a downstate farmer winning something like 3.5 million and the gal asked him what he would do with the money.
He said something like this.
Well, I was about to lose the farm to the bank but with this I can pay off the $300,000 debt and then just keep farming until the rest of this is gone.
You DO NOT have to make a profit to be a farmer.

But if this is ow one operates his farm, by not being profitable, it will not last too terribly wrong. So you would be a farmer for a limited time only... Unless of course you are subsidizing your passion with off farm work.

Most of the vans I have had said they were station wagons on the titles.
The two Ford Aerostars I have had said they were trucks on their titles.
So, Just look on your title.

The history of rural life and farming in much of the Ozarks is very interesting. Our area was settled in the 1820s and even in the early days it was mostly subsistence farming and whole families would often spends months out of the year in other states threshing wheat, picking crops, cutting rail road ties, or performing other labor to support their small hard scrabble farms and that continues today.

We meet the USDA definition of a farm but we couldnt live like we do unless we had our comfortable income from retirement and investments. From my personal experience a "Farm" means a place where you plant dollars to grow or raise pennies!

We thoroughly enjoy living our "farm" dream and wouldnt want to live any other way but we are under zero illusion that we are really farmers in the professional sense; we would be in the poor house if we had to make our living from farming.

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www.salmonslayer-simplelife.blogspot.com

I was once told how I could make a small fortune in farming. Start out with a large fortune.

A FARMER's main purpose is to raise plants, he may feed them to Animals but he thinks of his main job as plants.
A RANCHER's main purpose is to raise ANIMALS he may raise plants to feed them but but he thinks of his main job as animals