Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Cows: How to Identify and Appreciate America's 52 Breeds

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I live, with four widely spaced neighbors in 20 miles, in the high desert 84 miles east of San Diego. No one in their right mind lives out here unless they are in the coyotes/cows category as we evidently are. Today I had to go into town, and on the lonely road through miles of ranchland I saw a white VW camper like mine stopped alongside the road. I approached it slowly to try to see if it were an intentional or accidental stop. The guy in the driver's seat waived as I passed but looked contented as a cow to be there. In fact, he looked like he was just sitting there watching the cows nearby. Yet nobody out here watches cows, so a couple of miles down the road I started worrying. I turned back and asked him if he needed help. "Just watching cows," he said, and held up..."A Field Guide to Cows." Immediately I made a U-turn to check out this book. WOW!! Right away we found in it a Polled Gray I'd spotted at a Santa Ysabel ranch and was dying of curiously to identify. Had to have this book. (This elderly guy, all alone and recently returned from stargazing at Anza Borrego Desert State Park, had stopped to watch an Angus calf being nursed by a Jersey mom.) This book's a great way to meet great people as well as great cows! And living out here, I know Amazon will get it to me fast without having to burn 8 gallons worth of gas to the nearest store.

After reading all those reviews about people who have this book and saying how great it is, I finally have it and I must admit they are all absolutely right. Not only is this indispenseble companion fascinating, but it is also hillarious.

If you are looking for a cutesy book you won't be disappointed. If you are looking for information on identifying cattle of various breeds accurately - keep looking. This book has a cut out mask that you can hold in front of your face so you can moo at cows over the fence. There are no photographs of cows or anything else. Black and white sketches only. Buyer beware!!!

I got this lightly entertaining, packed fact chock-full, irreverent little book as a gift from my mother-in-law. Yes, a woman from Southwest Oregon, raised in cattle country on a huge ranch that had been in the family for generations. This was a sympathy gift for me, when playing family trivia pursuit, I responded with surprise when a "Holstein" came out as the answer to a question. First there were blank stares in my direction from around the table, and then came surprise, disbelief, and finally the boisterous and gratuitous laughter, all generated by my unknowledge of the wonderful Holstein. I could see it in their eyes...my esteem took a whack downwards that day in their bovine-wise eyes. The scandal and shame of it, with me being from Texas and all. Now I know a Holstein is a dairy cow with spots. I'm armed and semi-dangerous with this funny book. Did you know that a Piedmont has a big, big beefy butt? A Cow can detect odors up to five miles away (they must despise being a cow then with the way they smell)? How about how many stomachs a cow has? A: 4. You would know all this if you had this book. I wouldn't call this book essential or anything quite that elevated, but it is truly fun. If you get laughed at for not knowing a Guernsey from a Galloway, you might want to get this book. I used to hate cows when I saw what they did to the land, whilst hiking in Idaho. Now that I have the book, I don't hate them quite as much.

This indispensable, versatile, and fascinating guide to America's 52 breeds of cattle is a must in the book collection of any cow lover. Anyone who loves cows will certainly be a-moosed with this a-moosing book. good to have standing by when you drive through Lancaster.

I am your basic cow enthusiast- someone who just enjoys looking at them on a back-road commute to work. I bought this book to learn a little bit more about the cows I see every day. I am also a classroom teacher and I hoped to share some of the info I learned here with my students. The book is terrific, has great facts and info about each cow. The only drawback is that the pictures are not in color and are not even photographs- they are kind of a sketched drawing of each cow. However, this doesn't take away too much from the quality of the book.

I bought this book because I've always had a "thing" for cows. My kitchen used to be decorated in cows. I'm one of those people that used to yell "MOOOOO" out of car windows, every time I would pass a field of cows.

This book isn't exactly what I thought it would be, but I still recommend it. I was hoping for pictures, but there are only hand drawn illustrations. The illustrations are good...but I really wished for color photographs.

There are fun facts on every page, which I enjoy being able to spout off. There are charts in the back of the book about milk production and beef production. My pre-teen daughter found enough information in this book to do a report on cows, even thought it's thin...she also found it to be a fast read.

I'd recommend this book to someone curious about cows. It's a good starting-off point.

The book had lots of good information, but only line drawings of the cows. I was disappointed in not having color photos since this was an identification book.

I have cows and live on a farm that was once a dairy farm. I purchased this book because I thought it might have some good pictures and information. I was 50% right. The information is very good. Each specific breed has it's own two pages to strut it's stuff. On the bottom of the page there is extra "did you know..." information. That is all really helpful. But the pictures. The pictures are all black and white. Even though it tells you what color the cow is, there should really be at least a couple real photographs. Other than the pictures, this is a really good book! Go for it!!

I bought this book for my girlfriend as a joke, but she had a lot of fun with it. It's nothing glorious or profound, it just briefly discusses the differences between breeds. For anyone who has driven rural roads thinking (or saying) "wow, look at all the cows" this book can be fun to skim through. Just a silly little book, really, but not every book needs to be serious ...