Crossword Genius

Cattle farmer managed encouraging sound, but no heart in it (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

rancher

'cattle farmer' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'managed encouraging sound but no heart in it' is the wordplay.
'managed' becomes 'ran' (I've seen this in another clue).
'encouraging sound' becomes 'cheer' (a cheer gives encouragement).
'but no heart in it' means to remove the middle letters (the letters at the heart are removed).
'cheer' with its centre taken out is 'cher'.
'ran'+'cher'='RANCHER'

(Other definitions for rancher that I've seen before include "Farm worker" , "North American cattle farmer" , "Hacienda owner" , "US cattle farmer" , "Person with stock" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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