Julius Ruechel covers every aspect of raising grass-fed cattle, including herd selection, breeding, yearly cycles, cultivating and maintaining healthy soil and grass, fencing and pasture rotation, winter grazing, pests and diseases, and necessary equipment. He also provides everything you need to know about marketing your product, from niche market opportunities to scheduling the selling and buying of cattle for the greatest profit, finishing the beef and arranging for slaughter, labeling, marketing, and financial planning and record keeping. He even includes chapters for conventional farmers who are transitioning to natural production, farmers who are considering leasing or buying land, and farmers who want to pursue organic certification. Whether you're running a small backyard hobby farm or a large commercial ranch, this is the information you need to successfully raise and market grass-fed beef.
Grass-Fed Cattle: How to Produce and Market Natural Beef
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
“For people starting out in raising grass-fed beef, this book is essential. For the experienced grass farmer, this book is an important addition to the library.” – Temple, Grandin, designer of humane livestock facilities; author of Animals in Translation
From the Back Cover
Join the movement toward safe, healthy, sustainable grass-fed cattle farming. Take advantage of the naturally efficient relationship between cattle and pasture to create a profitable, financially stable enterprise, regardless of the size of your farm, the climate where you live, or your current farming practices.
Cattle are wonderfully adept at converting grass into meat, fat, and milk. Here, Julius Ruechel gives you the management and marketing tools you need to meet your personal, financial, and farming goals. Whether you are beginning a new enterprise or changing from a more conventional feeding and management system, Grass-Fed Cattle offers complete information on running a profitable, environmentally sustainable farm based on the efficiency of cattle and grass.
Learn how to:
*Make the transition from a conventional, grain-fed program to grass-fed production
*Manage grazing practices and soil and grass conditions to maximize cattle health and your time and resources
*Successfully market your grass-fed beef
*Use the step-by-step workbook provided for detailed, customized business planning
Cattle are wonderfully adept at converting grass into meat, fat, and milk. Here, Julius Ruechel gives you the management and marketing tools you need to meet your personal, financial, and farming goals. Whether you are beginning a new enterprise or changing from a more conventional feeding and management system, Grass-Fed Cattle offers complete information on running a profitable, environmentally sustainable farm based on the efficiency of cattle and grass.
Learn how to:
*Make the transition from a conventional, grain-fed program to grass-fed production
*Manage grazing practices and soil and grass conditions to maximize cattle health and your time and resources
*Successfully market your grass-fed beef
*Use the step-by-step workbook provided for detailed, customized business planning
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you only have one book on raising grass-feed cattle this is the one to have,
This review is from: Grass-Fed Cattle: How to Produce and Market Natural Beef (Paperback)
I've read everything on raising grass-fed cattle from Allan Nation and Jim Garrish to Joel Salatin and I have to say, this is the most comprehensive guide to setting up a grass-fed beef business I've found.
You can only fully appreciate this book if you are actually trying to raise grass-fed animals. Each time I run into a difficulty with my herd or the land my cattle are grazing, I find sound guidance to the problem in this book. For instance, the section on managing the calving season on pasture (a topic I haven't seen mentioned in other books) seems particularly brilliant to me after having spent a day looking for a hidden calf. If you are just setting up a grass-fed business this is the book to have. Julius Ruechel guides you in putting the pieces of land, vegetation, water, animals, and seasons together with human management to create a system that reflects and capitalizes on the synergistic complexity of nature while fully respecting all of her living components. The only caution I would add is that it is a big continent, and no book can fully reflect the variations in climate, terrain, and scale found here. So you will need to adapt some of the advice to reflect your local conditions. I have been reading these reader reviews for years, but this is the first book that has inspired me enough to write a review, so if you are reading Mr. Ruechel, please accept my thanks. I only wish your book had been out when I first entered this business.
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not a farmer...,
By Mara (Virginia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Grass-Fed Cattle: How to Produce and Market Natural Beef (Paperback)
I respectfully disagree with the reviewer that suggests that only other cattle owners can appreciate this book. Personally, I found it fascinating, and I don't have any animal larger than a dog. 'Grass-Fed Cattle' is comprehensive and thorough, explaining not just how to raise cattle on grass (all year round!) but WHY-- which is what makes it a worthwhile read for anyone interested in ecology, human and animal health, and/ or the way we eat. I picked this up just after reading Michael Pollan's 'Omnivore's Dilemma', which talks quite a bit about grass-fed versus corn-fed beef.
There are many aspects to the book that a non-farmer can appreciate. The compexity of such an operation, for one; the level of respect the author has for cows, for another. If you are not already eating grass-fed beef, this book will certainly be a push in that direction. The business perspective is interesting, too; I never realized that it was possible to rent grazing lands or that the cattle market had a 10-12 year price cycle. Oh, and the few pages on picking out fertile cows and bulls is unintentionally hilarious if you're willing to step back and apply the same criteria to oneself...
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
OMG,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Grass-Fed Cattle: How to Produce and Market Natural Beef (Paperback)
This book sat way to long on my shelf. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. Sometimes it takes someone outside of the industry to be able to step back and see what's wrong. Put your farm back in synch with nature and see your problems reduced and your profit increase. This book is the most well rounded book on every subject I've found. Also great worksheets to make your business plan.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
(learn more)
stocker cattle, electric fence grid, spring grass flush, benchmark acres, cow grazing days, grass residual, moisture storage zone, cattle production year, tough cellulose structure, grazing infrastructure, livestock nutritionist, dress percentage, grass reserve, acyclic period, drought fund, drought reserve, herd impact, pasture subdivision, mineral feeder, grass finishing, grazing rotation, pasture divisions, forage analyses, pasture moves, manure patches Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Fundamentals of Grass-Based Beef, The Cattle Year, North America, Market Options, British Columbia, Dynamic Marketing, Scottish Highland, Sprinkler Irrigation Manual, United States, Grande Prairie, Yearly Expense Budget, Sun Valley, Managing Your Herd Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
stocker cattle, electric fence grid, spring grass flush, benchmark acres, cow grazing days, grass residual, moisture storage zone, cattle production year, tough cellulose structure, grazing infrastructure, livestock nutritionist, dress percentage, grass reserve, acyclic period, drought fund, drought reserve, herd impact, pasture subdivision, mineral feeder, grass finishing, grazing rotation, pasture divisions, forage analyses, pasture moves, manure patches Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Fundamentals of Grass-Based Beef, The Cattle Year, North America, Market Options, British Columbia, Dynamic Marketing, Scottish Highland, Sprinkler Irrigation Manual, United States, Grande Prairie, Yearly Expense Budget, Sun Valley, Managing Your Herd Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
