by Carol Ekarius
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Product Description
Starting a small-scale livestock farm? First, you need this book! Yes, you can have a prosperous farm and achieve the lifestyle of your dreams ; and farming expert Carol Ekarius will show you how. Small farms can pay big dividends, Ekarius explains, but hard work alone isn't enough: Success demands knowledge and effective management. Ekarius's natural, organic approach to livestock management produces healthier animals, reduces feed and healthcare costs, and maximizes your profit. Through case studies of successful farmers, nitty-gritty details on every facet of livestock farming, and fascinating insights for working with nature instead of against it, you'll learn to make your farm thrive. Small-Scale Livestock Farming will help you: * Determine what you want from your farming life (even if your farm is simply a few backyard animals) * Choose suitable livestock * Understand housing, fencing, and feeding needs of livestock * Learn about reproducing stock and caring for your animals' hea
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Isn't there more, 2008-08-03
A superficial treatment of almost every subject. I found it of very little use. There are better books out there on every subject listed in the table of contents. The book just tries to cover way too much to be of any use on anything. I definitely do NOT recommend it, especially not to someone just getting started with livestock, or someone just thinking about it. You need to know SO much more.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 One of the best grass-farming primers I've read., 2008-07-01
After digging through many farming books geared to raising conventional (i.e. grain-fed) livestock, I was extremely happy to find this book!
Small-Scale Livestock Farming is definitely geared toward novice farmers who want to start out completely grass-fed and free-range; but it would also be helpful for more experienced farmers who want to switch from conventional monoculture methods. Ms. Ekarius gives very good information about the qualities of grasses and legumes and the best ways to achieve healthy soil and livestock through a natural forage system. This book definitely filled in the gaps for me and gave me the formulas I was looking for to determine how much forage and hay I could expect from a field and how many animals I could healthily stock on each pasture (fresh or hay) based on their nutritional needs. The planning section alone is worth the price of the entire book!
The only things missing were a section about browse (brush & shrubs) because goats and pigs tend to love that even more than graze (grass & legumes), and information about rabbits (not a typical "livestock" animal in the US). But, with the plethora of information she provides on other topics, this is entirely forgivable and doesn't diminish the value of this book at all.
The special attention Ms. Ekarius gives to direct marketing and legal matters for the small producer is invaluable! I'd been trying to find the laws and regulations for my state for ages and kept getting more and more confused. After reading the legislative section, I knew exactly where to look and how to decipher what was being said. I think it would be wonderful if she tackled Taxes for farms and farmers next!
If you're looking to operate a biodiverse farm sustainably, this is definitely the book to get you started.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Great book, 2007-10-13
Great book. I would have liked to see some more complete information on some topics, but it's a very useful read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
I loved this book, 2007-05-09
Small Scale LivestockFarming:... is a simple easy to read text containing a broad overview of many more topics with more depth than expected and providing numerous references for areas which the text is not indepth enough for your needs. This book had to be the best money spent on a starting source for related knowledge. It is highly recomended to anyone intested in this subject.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
 lots of frosting very little cake. , 2007-04-18
I was put off by the author so I had a difficult time finishing this book.
The section on biology was nothing more than an eighth grade biology course and really unnecessary.
It appears that information that would be easily gleaned from other sources was abundant but firsthand knowledge was seriously lacking.
I didn't like her double standards. She advises readers to "Feel free to mark up" (page 116). She prices her meat to rural buyers slightly higher than the local butcher but she would have raised her prices even higher if she had lived closer to urban buyers. I can understand pricing higher if you have to drive farther to get to the city but that's not the advice. Then, in a story on fighting a factory farm on pages 124 & 125 she dubs a local man "Joe Greed". According to the story he sued because he had planned to sell his land to the factory farm envisioning lots of dollars in his pockets but with the new zoning laws he wasn't able to. If he's Joe Greed then she's "Carol Greed" for wanting urbanites to pay more simply because they live in the city. I don't agree with either of them.
I wonder if she's taken to writing books on farming intended to sell to city folks who only dream of country living and will never know her advice is of little help.
It was the little things that made this book bothersome such as her advice to have a silage pile but according to the author a farmer needs lots of specialized equipment for this. In the book The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It Seymour describes how to harvest by hand. For those modern small scale farms an electric weed whacker makes it a little easier. Cut it, turn it, stack it right in the fields and cover it with a tarp, voila, a silage pile. Fence it in order to control feeding and your done, nothing special needed.
One other point that I found difficult was her statement that she followed all the guidelines to be organic but wasn't certified, but mostly she advises to call a vet. I would have excepted that advice if the author would have included some information on how to get the vet to help without the use of antibiotics. According to the author antibiotics negate an organic animal standing and it must be sold as conventional. She gives 3 or 4 treatments for ailing animals and acknowledges successes with alternative treatments even names a few but that's it. I would expect someone that was farming organically to have a wealth of knowledge and include it when writing on the subject.
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