Beef Cattle : Keeping a Small-Scale Herd for Pleasure and Profit

Your hands-on reference to raising beef cattle!

• Choosing a breed, purchasing, and bringing home your first cows
• Required facilities, constructing fencing and shelter to protect your herd
• Feeding and nutrition to keep your cattle healthy and maintain weight
• Safe handling, holding pens, chutes, and training your herd to follow you
• Recognizing disease, how to prevent and treat it, and when to call the vet for medical care
• Breeding your herd, caring for pregnant cows, nurturing newborn calves, weaning, and more
• Marketing and processing your cattle is covered in detail
• 2nd edition is fully vetted by large animal veterinarian Dr. Mark McConnon, providing the most up-to-date information available for today's hobby farmer: vaccinations, nutrition and diet, disease control, new equipment and devices, home and plant processing, grazing management, and so much more

Few things are as satisfying as raising livestock for food, or to simply graze and fertilize pastures as "nature's lawnmowers"!

This informative book is an excellent easy-to-follow guide to raising cows. Seasoned handlers and beginners alike will benefit from this colorful guide, packed with essential information for purchasing and maintaining a small herd of beef cattle from meadow to market.

While managing her own hobby farm in Wisconsin, author Ann Larkin Hansen shares her expertise in all things farm. In this complete and comprehensive guide, Hansen corrals the hobby farmer into the world of cowboys and cowgirls, stating, "Beef cattle are as much at home on the hobby farm as they are on the range." Hansen is a homesteader, journalist, organic farmer, and prolific author.

This practical primer begins with the basics, from biological traits and behavior to life cycle, helping you choose the breed that's best for your farm. It describes exactly what's needed to maintain a herd of cattle, the four Fs: fencing, feed, fields, and facilities.

You'll find sound and sensible advice on buying the right cattle, whether steer calves for meat or breeding stock for building up a herd. The buying chapter helps you focus on what to look for when selecting cattle; how cows, heifers, and bulls are priced; where to purchase; and how to get cattle to the farm.

Feeding cattle is broken down into three components that every rancher must understand about a nutritious diet: pasture, hay, and grain. With directness and clarity, Hansen explains the ins and outs of grazing, selecting ideal foodstuffs, using salt and minerals, and maintaining good weight on the herd.

Helpful tips and photos accompany expert insight to the fundamentals of handling cattle, including herding, loading, and transporting, as well as how to spot symptoms of common diseases and keep cows healthy through preventive care, vaccinations, parasite control, and veterinary assistance.

If breeding your livestock, you'll find details on pairing cows and heifers, artificial insemination, the care of pregnant cows, calving, caring for the young, and weaning calves. The final chapter covers getting beef processed, grading meat, and selling the final product. Sidebars of trivia, real-life stories from farmers, and useful advice appear throughout.

Learn everything a small-scale farmer needs to succeed, and produce hormone-free beef for your family and friends, with Beef Cattle, 2nd Edition!

"A great, easy-to-read book for people who are getting started raising beef cattle. I really like the emphasis on using cattle to improve the land and encouraging people to preserve rare breeds." —Temple Grandin, Associate Professor of Animal Science, Colorado State University, and author of Animals in Translation

Ann Larkin Hansen runs a farm in Wisconsin and has published several books, including The Organic Farming Manual and Beef Cattle: Keeping a Small-Scale Herd for Pleasure and Profit. She has contributed to many publications, including Beef, Mother Earth News, Wisconsin West, Minnesota Business Journal, and The Organic Broadcaster. She is a past president of the Wisconsin Women's Sustainable Farming Network.