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Storey's Guide to Raising Beef Cattle
Whether you’re raising one cow or a herd, this comprehensive guide shows you everything you need to know to successfully manage your beef cattle operation. Heather Smith Thomas stresses the importance of understanding bovine behavior while covering breed selection, calving, feeding, housing, medical care, and humane slaughter practices. Along with in-depth information on raising grass-fed animals and dealing with toxic pasture plants, you’ll also find advice on creating a viable business plan and identifying niche markets for your beef.
343 pages, Paperback
First published January 5, 1998
88 people are currently reading
236 people want to read
About the author
Heather Smith Thomas
28 books8 followersHeather Smith Thomas grew up on a ranch near Salmon, Idaho. She is the author of 20 books and thousands of articles on animal health care. She began writing stories for children’s magazines while still in high school and wrote articles for horse and farm publications to help pay her way through college. She wrote her first book, "A Horse in Your Life: A Guide for the New Owner," during the summer between her sophomore and junior year of college. She and her husband Lynn Thomas have been raising beef cattle and a few horses on their ranch in central Idaho since 1967. Most of her books and articles deal with horse or cattle health care, breeding, or handling. Her goal has been to learn all she can about the care of horses and cattle, and to share this with her readers. One of her books, however, discusses an entirely different subject. "Beyond the Flames" tells about her daughter’s severe burn injury and how this changed their lives.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 10, 2021
Very informative book about raising cattle in a cow-calf operation setting. This is aimed at full-time beef farmers who have many cattle rotating through all the time. We ourselves are nowhere near ready to do anything like this yet, but it’s good to know where to find the info if it’s ever needed.
I like meat and I’m interested in natural homesteading, rotational grazing, pasture management and raising grass-fed, grass-finished beef. This isn’t quite the book for that, although I do feel like I know a lot more about cattle than I did when I started. (It’s easy to go up from zero.)
The book includes lots of info on different breeds. There are detailed descriptions of ailments, vaccination regimes, and other quite interventionist techniques. It’s a bit repetitive though. The descriptions of dehorning procedures made me wince. I would have liked a bit more info on how find suitable hay and other fodder.
It was funny to read a description of what a bull does when breeding a cow. It’s been a few years since anyone felt the need to explain the birds and the bees to me! 😄
I like meat and I’m interested in natural homesteading, rotational grazing, pasture management and raising grass-fed, grass-finished beef. This isn’t quite the book for that, although I do feel like I know a lot more about cattle than I did when I started. (It’s easy to go up from zero.)
The book includes lots of info on different breeds. There are detailed descriptions of ailments, vaccination regimes, and other quite interventionist techniques. It’s a bit repetitive though. The descriptions of dehorning procedures made me wince. I would have liked a bit more info on how find suitable hay and other fodder.
It was funny to read a description of what a bull does when breeding a cow. It’s been a few years since anyone felt the need to explain the birds and the bees to me! 😄
February 28, 2019
I'll start by saying that I wanted to give this book 3 stars. Honestly, I wanted to give it 4 but I couldn't because it was just SO BORING. It had A LOT of information, but a there was a lot of unnecessary and unwanted information. There was just SO MUCH information to take in that I ended up reading it but not really paying attention or interpreting what I was reading. It was too boring. You can only get so interesting when your writing a nonfiction book about raising cattle, but you can surely do better than this! For goodness sake I could write something more interesting than this and I only own 1 cow!
If you're looking for a book about cattle to read cover to cover, you can do better. If you're just looking for something to further your knowledge in a particular aspect of raising cattle you can try it.
If you're looking for a book about cattle to read cover to cover, you can do better. If you're just looking for something to further your knowledge in a particular aspect of raising cattle you can try it.
June 13, 2019
Story is known for its guide books on livestock and other farm animals. Raising Beef Cattle covers the basics from selecting the breed you want to caring for calves. I found it informative altough their are a few omissions in the breeds section.
November 15, 2021
This book is super informative and will tell you anything and everything you need to know about raising beef cattle! It is very thorough. I loved the part about the behaviours of cattle. Even though I’m a zoology major in college and learned about genetics, the breeding part was probably my least favourite as it was so boring.
There’s so much to this book from handling to how to raise and keep beef cattle to the enormous array of health conditions to breeding and taking care of calves. It’s pretty much everything you need to know before you get into buying beef cattle! It made me reconsider breeding cows after reading the involvement one has to go through to make sure the cows have a good pregnancy and the delivery goes well.
Overall, still a fabulous read and now I feel more prepared and comfortable about putting heifers onto our farm! I need to get my husband to read this great book, too!
There’s so much to this book from handling to how to raise and keep beef cattle to the enormous array of health conditions to breeding and taking care of calves. It’s pretty much everything you need to know before you get into buying beef cattle! It made me reconsider breeding cows after reading the involvement one has to go through to make sure the cows have a good pregnancy and the delivery goes well.
Overall, still a fabulous read and now I feel more prepared and comfortable about putting heifers onto our farm! I need to get my husband to read this great book, too!
Want to read
June 19, 2019This book Is very good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 16, 2016
Raising Beef Cattle Review
In the book Storey’s Guide to Raising Beef Cattle (1998) written by Heather Smith
Thomas the author explains different methods that you may apply when raising beef cattle that gives the reader knowledge about how to safely and effectively raise cattle. Thomas develops a guideline to show non knowledgeable people that are interested in beef cattle how to properly raise and nurture them in a correct matter of safety between the animal and the human. This book so far has opened my eyes to knew techniques on properly taking care of beef cattle not only do I have experience already on raising cattle, but this book already has taught me new things to work on with my own cattle. I truly like this book because of the information it provides and it would surly guide me into a future career in beef cattle.
In my personal experience with reading cattle books this book by far has given me more information on handling beef cattle safely and in a correct manner. While reading this book on certain chapters about handling cattle correctly I have tried new ways from the book and it helped me with my beef cattle on properly walking them and walking through different surroundings. I have also learned about the different behaviors about beef cattle and what to expect through there body language and how you can tell they will either charge or run away from you or other objects. The proper safety method I have learned is to always watch there body movement so that your safe and the animal is safe while staying away from their “flight zone”
which is like a personal space bubble for cattle. To properly move cattle safely is to minimize as much stress as possible for the reason if the animal is stressed then its more prone to charge or start having more health problems.
One of the most important aspects in raising any animal is there background. In the book Thomas explain the importance of genetics the advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages would be finding a calf that has good genes between the cow and the bull that would benefit the owners by possibly selling the calf for higher money or putting it into a show to possible win an award. The better looking the calf with a great structure of the muscle and skeletal system the better quality meat and show cattle either for breeding or eating. Genetics also helps with preventing diseases on either young calf’s or yearlings which with most diseases on cattle can be fatal on calf’s or yearlings. Having control of the DNA helps increase probability of life which will essentially have a direct correlation to your businesses income.
Overall this book hits many different aspects of cattle that I didn’t have any previous knowledge about. Without the guidance of this book I wouldn’t have the knowledge now on genetics, safety with moving cattle, and overall cattle behavior. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in starting a farm or simply want know about beef cattle. It is a well written book that is easy to understand the author did an excellent job.
In the book Storey’s Guide to Raising Beef Cattle (1998) written by Heather Smith
Thomas the author explains different methods that you may apply when raising beef cattle that gives the reader knowledge about how to safely and effectively raise cattle. Thomas develops a guideline to show non knowledgeable people that are interested in beef cattle how to properly raise and nurture them in a correct matter of safety between the animal and the human. This book so far has opened my eyes to knew techniques on properly taking care of beef cattle not only do I have experience already on raising cattle, but this book already has taught me new things to work on with my own cattle. I truly like this book because of the information it provides and it would surly guide me into a future career in beef cattle.
In my personal experience with reading cattle books this book by far has given me more information on handling beef cattle safely and in a correct manner. While reading this book on certain chapters about handling cattle correctly I have tried new ways from the book and it helped me with my beef cattle on properly walking them and walking through different surroundings. I have also learned about the different behaviors about beef cattle and what to expect through there body language and how you can tell they will either charge or run away from you or other objects. The proper safety method I have learned is to always watch there body movement so that your safe and the animal is safe while staying away from their “flight zone”
which is like a personal space bubble for cattle. To properly move cattle safely is to minimize as much stress as possible for the reason if the animal is stressed then its more prone to charge or start having more health problems.
One of the most important aspects in raising any animal is there background. In the book Thomas explain the importance of genetics the advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages would be finding a calf that has good genes between the cow and the bull that would benefit the owners by possibly selling the calf for higher money or putting it into a show to possible win an award. The better looking the calf with a great structure of the muscle and skeletal system the better quality meat and show cattle either for breeding or eating. Genetics also helps with preventing diseases on either young calf’s or yearlings which with most diseases on cattle can be fatal on calf’s or yearlings. Having control of the DNA helps increase probability of life which will essentially have a direct correlation to your businesses income.
Overall this book hits many different aspects of cattle that I didn’t have any previous knowledge about. Without the guidance of this book I wouldn’t have the knowledge now on genetics, safety with moving cattle, and overall cattle behavior. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in starting a farm or simply want know about beef cattle. It is a well written book that is easy to understand the author did an excellent job.
March 23, 2009
My bible for all things bovine. Indispensable for the whole process of pre during and post calving. Clear images and descriptions.
Written in the USA the images made me thoroughly grateful for farming in Cornwall - we don't have to deal with or dress for the blizzards and deep snow that the "models" obviously were when the photos where taken.
Written in the USA the images made me thoroughly grateful for farming in Cornwall - we don't have to deal with or dress for the blizzards and deep snow that the "models" obviously were when the photos where taken.
January 7, 2021
This book is very good and informational and it can help other framers no what to do in a certain situation. it also shows how you can properly raise and breed beef cattle. this has many uses and it is very cool it has very detailed pictures and it shows everything you need to do in order to have cattle.
February 26, 2019
My dad and I both read this book before my dad got our cows. It showed him how to build shelter for cattle, how to feed them, how to care for them. . . if you like cows, or if you have cows, you've really gotta read this book!
Even if you don't have cows, it's still interesting!
Even if you don't have cows, it's still interesting!
June 29, 2014
Great for learning about cattle
My wife and I are thinking of raising cattle after I get out of the service in a couple years. This book goes over nearly everything a beginner would need. Also, it is organized, especially the health section, like a reference book.
My wife and I are thinking of raising cattle after I get out of the service in a couple years. This book goes over nearly everything a beginner would need. Also, it is organized, especially the health section, like a reference book.
January 5, 2018
I am a huge fan of Storey's guides for being excellent reference books for not only beginners but also experienced farmers and animal lovers. I found this guide very informative, well organized and easy to navigate. I would definitely recommend it to anyone starting out raising beef cattle!
November 7, 2007
Really good guide . All very helpful and practical. All the facts you really will need not just text book stuff. I use and refur to this one all the time
March 2, 2012
So far, it has been very informative.
August 26, 2012
Feels a little dated, but lots of information.
Read
October 22, 2014Yes, I really did read about cattle ranching so I'd have accurate information for Spaghetti Western....
September 12, 2015
A great general book of all things related to care of cattle. I learned a lot.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews