[.ca] Small Scale Livestock Farming: A Grass-Based Approach ... (ISBN 1580171621)

Is This High School Biology???:
I was looking for a substantial book about small-scale livestock farming, and instead I was treated to a very basic introduction to agriculture. This book would make a great high school agriculture text, but beyond that it falls short of providing any real, useful, institutional knowledge that I was looking for. For example, in the book the author reviews basic high biology concepts such as the water cycle, the food chain, and the energy pyramid. She also reminds readers how to round up or round down. And if that were not insulting enough, she then informs readers that to be a successful farmer, you must dress like a farmer; "clean bib overalls and a straw hat, or a plaid shirt, jeans, and a cowboy hat." Give me a break. Again, if you want a simplistic, new age, farming book of little practical use by an author who has less than a decade of farming experience, this book is for you. If you want a no-frills, no-fluff, useful, dirt under your nails, John Deere farmer kind of a book, I would look elsewhere and I would suggest Gene Logsdon's The Contrary Farmer.

Excellent, interesting discussions but zero photos!:
I found the discussion on grass farming and pasturing methods to be first rate advice. Many livestock farmer wannabe's don't realize that they are, or should be, first considered as grass farmers who harvest their crop with animals instead of tractors. Other welcome advice or comments were: Her advice to think long and hard before investing in exotics is wise. In many occasions, she is correct when she states it was a pyramid scheme to make the first entrants rich but later followers left holding the bag. Still, at least some discussion on exotic farming costs and likely returns could have been included for those who persist in such enterprises. Further, the interviews with other small-scale farmers wasw, by and large, helpful. How could this book become a five-star? A - Include photographs of the topics and methods discussed. B - Include a section of rabbit farming C - Provide more detail specific to livestock housing, breeding and management practices. The scarcity of information in this section was a disappointment. D - Prune out some of the new-age, holistic information. E - Add further real-life examples of income/expense worksheets. Those that are included are a GREAT help. All in all this is a terrific book in the mode of back-to-the-land books of the 70s, but a bit more mature and business-oriented. Shuttleworth (Mother Earth News) and Belanger (Countryside & Small Stock Journal) would be proud to know this author. I, as publisher of Living Among Nature Daringly am grateful to have purchased this book through Amazon.\ocom\c

Excellent Resource:
My brother gave this book to me for my birthday, and it has been great. We are new to farming, and it has helped us determine how to move forward, and to plan for our operation. We're retired, but we need this to pay some income, and that is what this book is all about, making money, but doing it so you don't screw up the land. The author has lots of excellent advice not only on caring for your animals, but also on direct marketing to get a bigger share of the consumer's dollar. She writes with a down to earth style that I really appreciate.

Practical and inspirational:
This book has proved to be key in the realignment of our approach to farming. The book helped to crystalize an approach we were already working towards. In the past year we've been able to put in place a long-term plan that takes advantage of the resources of our farm but also helps to revitalize them for the future. Now, in addition to raising and milking goats, we're able to include pigs and cattle on the same land, creating a more diverse income stream and saving some money on inputs. The book is practical, with worksheets and farmer profiles, but is inspirational, too!

Inspiring .....:
I got this book only a few months ago and I must say it has been a wealth of information. I learned about toxic plants, diseases, grazing management, budgeting your opperation effiecently, and also info on different feeding scales of species. Not to mention everything on this book but it has been an eye opening experience to learn from this knowledge and then apply it to my life.