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Best Sellers | | Home Grass-Fed Cattle: How to Produce and Market Natural Beef | |
|  | |  | | | Grass-Fed Cattle: How to Produce and Market Natural Beef | | | | | SKU:
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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | | | | 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.
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Julius Ruechel | | Paperback: | 384 pages | | Publisher: | Storey Publishing, LLC | | Publication Date: | July 01, 2006 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 1580176054 | | Product Length: | 10.74 inches | | Product Width: | 8.86 inches | | Product Height: | 0.94 inches | | Product Weight: | 2.32 pounds | | Package Length: | 10.8 inches | | Package Width: | 8.3 inches | | Package Height: | 1.0 inches | | Package Weight: | 2.35 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 22 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 22 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 52 found the following review helpful:
If you only have one book on raising grass-feed cattle this is the one to have Jul 18, 2007
By C. Noble
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.
35 of 35 found the following review helpful:
Not a farmer... Oct 23, 2007
By Mara
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...
18 of 19 found the following review helpful:
OMG Jul 06, 2007
By Benjamin Hartwell
"RamboC4"
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.
12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 Great Resource, Almost Complete Nov 24, 2010
By Kristoffer
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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9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
If you want to raise the best beef in the world, this is your guide May 13, 2008
By Jeffrey L. Tobey
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.
See all 22 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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