What's the DIFF Wednesday ?

This is a pic of a sunset at the big farm

On Wednesdays we will be posting "What's the Diff" to hopefully answer your questions about farming. We have people asking us questions all the time like What's the difference between a heifer, cow, steer and bull or What is the difference between a brush hog and a finishing mower.  If you have any questions similar to this, please leave a comment and we will address it for you.

So this week we are going to answer . . . What's the difference between a FARM and a RANCH?

A FARM is any amount of acreage that is used to raise and produce food as in produce, grain and/or livestock or "agricultural production".

It is a tract of land, usually with a house, barn, silo, etc, on which crops and often livestock are raised for livelihood.  It is also where land or water is devoted to the raising of animals, fish or plants like a pig farm, oyster farm or a tree farm.

A RANCH is a large tract of land, together with necessary personnel, buildings and equipment for rearing livestock especially cattle.

It is also an establishment maintained for raising livestock under range conditions (free range).  A ranch is in the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool.  Ranch is also a term used for the method of raising less common livestock such as elk, American bison or even ostrich, emu or alpacas.

We hope that helps explain the difference between a farm and a ranch (honestly, Kyle and I weren't sure of the difference until we looked it up).