Customer Reviews

Grass-Fed Cattle: How to Produce and Market Natural Beef

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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...

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.

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've been putting off raising beef for years. Now I know just what I want to do. I have a great opportunity because I dont have to correct my calving season. Just water and fences. This book will guide you through all the steps and explain why you should do things. I couldn't put it down.

My entire family has been involved in Ranching for my whole life, I purchased the book before I even started cross fencing my first ranch. This book gives great advice to properly set up a Ranch, what to do, how to do it, when to do it, etc....It is the most thorough book of the 20 or so I have read to date. I highly recommend this book. Though all the ideas are great and give you good ideas, and best practices, not all of the ideas and tips are feasible for a person who also holds down a full time job and has a ranch on the side. The book is certainly written for the full time rancher

All in all, a great Book.

I also do not own any livestock and found this book to be a great read. I had just read The Omnivore's Dilemma (loved it) and wanted to read a book on the subject of grass fed cattle, I found this book and when I saw the mention of The Omnivore's Dilemma on the front cover I knew it was the book to read. I am interested in raising some livestock in the future and want a solid base of knowledge before I start since I have never raised any animals (except of course the usual dog and cat). After reading this I have decided to do many things different than I had previously thought I might. I also have to say I agree with "Mara" another reviewer about the fertile cows and bulls, I did think of that on a number of occasions while reading the recommendations.

I'm not a cattleman nor am I an expert of quality bovine literature but this book was excellent. Informative and extremely readable. The author addresses 'every' aspect of grass-fed cattle production. Plus it's filled with plenty of helpful illustrations. Overall a very worthwhile purchase.

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 through watering systems and business plans, this book is a great starting point for anyone interested in getting into the grass fed beef market. I wanted more detailed information on things like varieties of grass to plant in our area and how well some of the watering and haying ideas worked with larger numbers of cattle, but this is a great book to purchase if you are just starting out AND if you are already in the cattle business but looking for ideas on how and why to get into this rapidly growing niche market. Repeatedly, I've found myself going back and highlighting segments that sparked ideas for our farm. I know there are some missing pieces here for a larger cattle operation, and there are some details that might not work on a large scale beef operation as well as they sound like they do in the book, but it's still very easy to read and has plenty of tips for making things easier and more sustainable in any beef operation. It's just a great source of workable ideas for anybody. [...]

A great resource for all aspects of raising grass-fed cattle. I learned so much, and I'm sure I will turn to this again and again once we have our cattle.