Cattle
There are many fewer books on raising cattle than on raising chickens. I blame the New Age and vegetarian movements. None of them like beef. Unfortunately, all those “back to nature” types seem to be subsisting on eggs, goat milk and strange greens like arugala. And they’re the ones writing books on small scale agriculture. We need some meat eatin’ liberals out there to write a book for me.
I’ve been raising cattle for over a year now and have found that I know next to NOTHING about raising cattle compared to raising chickens. Cattle don’t demand much – grass in the summer, hay in the winter, and some water. The problem is that if something goes wrong with your cattle, its a really big deal. If you make a mistake and lose a chicken, you can shrug it off with an, “Aw, man,” toss it into the trash, and write off about $3.00. If you make a mistake and lose a registered cow, it’s a lot worse. You write off $2500, rent a backhoe, and set your plans back a year or two. Nothing says failure like a bloated cow carcass in your front pasture. (This hasn’t happened to me, but I don’t want you to get the idea that you can read a few pages on my blog and jump right in.)
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I think blossom would make a better poster cow the yaro
Hi,
From another aspiring farmer who also recently moved to SW Michigan… check out author Julius Ruechel. The book is titled Grass Fed Cattle or something like that. Very good, very detailed book on raising cattle.