Farm cat

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Farm cats also known as barn cats, are cats kept primarily for the purpose of catching the smaller vermin found on farms and ranches, which would otherwise eat and/or contaminate the farmer's crops, and especially grain or feed stocks. They are often semi-feral (wild) cats, and thus caution should be taken around them.

Though they may have a more wild temperament, they may be treated as house cats or derive sustenance solely from their job of lowering the mouse and rat populations. In the latter case, lack of guaranteed food supply, and the necessity of physical exertion on their part, will tend to cause the cats to be much leaner than their domestic counterparts. Unwanted domestic cats are sometimes abandoned at farms. Not having honed their instinctive hunting skills well enough to be self-reliant, few such castoffs survive for long.

On dairy farms, barn cats are often "paid" in milk for their work at hunting vermin. Most drink milk from a pan or bowl, but some learn to take it from "the fountain" (where a farmhand squeezes the cow's teat, squirting milk over a short distance directly into the cat's mouth.)

If the population of adult female farm cats is kept high enough (about 3-6 breeding females, depending on the location) their population can be self-sustaining for several years. The females will establish permanent homes in barns or other structures, especially if they are fed and sheltered there. Males will almost always leave permanently, only returning to mate. This can lead to inbreeding, as the male offspring return to impregnate their mother.

In areas with high numbers of predators, barn cat populations often go extinct. They can be eaten by raccoons, owls, coyotes, and other animals that prey on creatures of their size.

In the past, farmers would control their farm cat population by selling cats to scientific or medical organizations. Carolina Biological used to collect excess farm cats for sale as dissection specimens. However, this practice has long been abandoned.