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
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Book Description
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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
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
66 of 66 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
July 18, 2007
By C. Noble
Format: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.
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.
39 of 39 people found the following review helpful
By Mara
Format: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...
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...
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By Kristoffer
Format:Paperback
I really really like this book. It has lots of useful information neatly presented. If you're in grass-fed beef, or contemplating it (as I am), this is surely a great read and resource to have on hand. This review will focus on a couple shortcomings, as I feel the other reviews already present a good picture of what it does well. This is not nit-picking for the sake of it; I think that some of these shortcomings are real and should be borne in mind by the reader.
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I only give it 4/5 stars because Ruechel does not always do a good job backing up his arguments with citations, or making clear what he is saying from his own experience or collective experience versus what is likely to be speculation and not necessarily universally valid. Furthermore, it is clear throughout that he is very influenced by Holistic Management (Allan Savory's work), but there is not a single reference to Savory or HM (or even Andre Voison, as far as I can recall). In fact, the absence of mentioning these folks seems quite strange, and makes it seem like Ruechel re-invented the wheel on all this stuff, when in fact he clearly did not.
Ruechel is also adamant that year-around grazing is possible just about everywhere, but confines his discussion to implementation in *Western* environments, and comes off as a touch glib about how practicable this really is, particularly if you're environment differs from his. Some case studies of this, outside of Ruechel's authoritative affirmation, would have been helpful. Likewise, his discussion of soil fertility is clearly coming from the Albrecht school of cation base saturation ratio balancing, a perspective which is *not* universally accepted and has *not* been demonstrated to be universally valid, yet Ruechel declines to mention any of these subtleties, and suggests that disaster is lurking for those who do not pay attention to balance their cation ratios.
Finally, Ruechel is quite opaque about his own farm and operation. There is also no website, and really, no way to gauge for yourself how successful he actually is in practice (unless you happen to know him personally). This would be no problem at all, except that rather than relying on citation and reference to general experience and case studies, he frequently relies on his personal authority to tacitly back up his reasoning.
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I only give it 4/5 stars because Ruechel does not always do a good job backing up his arguments with citations, or making clear what he is saying from his own experience or collective experience versus what is likely to be speculation and not necessarily universally valid. Furthermore, it is clear throughout that he is very influenced by Holistic Management (Allan Savory's work), but there is not a single reference to Savory or HM (or even Andre Voison, as far as I can recall). In fact, the absence of mentioning these folks seems quite strange, and makes it seem like Ruechel re-invented the wheel on all this stuff, when in fact he clearly did not.
Ruechel is also adamant that year-around grazing is possible just about everywhere, but confines his discussion to implementation in *Western* environments, and comes off as a touch glib about how practicable this really is, particularly if you're environment differs from his. Some case studies of this, outside of Ruechel's authoritative affirmation, would have been helpful. Likewise, his discussion of soil fertility is clearly coming from the Albrecht school of cation base saturation ratio balancing, a perspective which is *not* universally accepted and has *not* been demonstrated to be universally valid, yet Ruechel declines to mention any of these subtleties, and suggests that disaster is lurking for those who do not pay attention to balance their cation ratios.
Finally, Ruechel is quite opaque about his own farm and operation. There is also no website, and really, no way to gauge for yourself how successful he actually is in practice (unless you happen to know him personally). This would be no problem at all, except that rather than relying on citation and reference to general experience and case studies, he frequently relies on his personal authority to tacitly back up his reasoning.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
WOW, this is great and informative.
This is a great book even for those who already have experience in the cattle industry. Traditional cattle operations (97%) are traditional...the way its been done for decades. Read more
Published 15 days ago by Krykie
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow
I'm a suburban/urban dweller who frequently drives through rural areas, sees farms and cattle, and think to myself "how great would it be to own a farm? Read more
Published 1 month ago by many_options
5.0 out of 5 stars
All you ever want to know
I currently do not have cattle and would probably never have more than 2 at one time. This book is more geared to a larger cattle base. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Alison Rudge
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Grass Fed Cattle" Extremely Informative!
"Grass Fed Cattle" Extremely Informative! We are just converting our land into grasses for the purpose of raising beef and wanted to know the ins and outs of the whole... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Jonathan W. Stellema
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you raise cattle, buy this book!
I have been raising 100% grass-fed cattle for many years. But even after interning with Joel Salatin at Polyface Farm I still had holes in my cattle knowledge. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Daniel R. Pike
5.0 out of 5 stars
We are grasss fed beef cattle ranchers and we use this as a reference...
This book is a font of fantastic information for ANYONE interested in grass fed beef - from a producer to a consumer. Against the Wind Ranch.
Published 9 months ago by Againstthewind
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must Have
I bought this book for my husband because it put into words what I was trying to convey as my belief on how cattle should be raised and it is now his cattle bible. Read more
Published 15 months ago by WisChris
5.0 out of 5 stars
Healthy Beef
Information from a person who saw that the current ways of raising beef cattle for food was not profitable, sustainable or healthy. Read more
Published on May 11, 2011 by Fleaj
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Compendium
I have been involved in Grass fed (finished) cattle for some time and have been frustrated at times at all the different resources you must track down to begin to get the... Read more
Published on June 22, 2010 by Double Ott Rancher
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of good information
This book is loaded with the very basics of raising and selling grass-fed beef. Beginning with the science of how the digestive system of the cow functions and then working its way... Read more
Published on February 6, 2010 by Gwendolyn C. Mcphail
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