Book review 2

Sorry, nothing new or interesting to post, so you get filler!!

I finished "Small-Scale Livestock Farming" by Carol Ekarius. It is a must have for me. It covers everything from financing to livestock management. It is a bit older, published in 1992 (close enough), so some thing, like the prices and trends, are a bit out of date, but it really doesn't matter.

I learned a lot about how may animals the land can hold, how to overwinter effectively, and how to read the land, so to speak. It teaches how to enrich the land so that every year it is improving and adding value and growth, and not deteriorating.

The key thing for me was when the book dissected the change from small scale farming into industrialized farms after World War 2. It explains how the number of animals in the US have remained relatively the same, but the number of farms have drastically decreased, and those farms are now owned by just a few, large corporations instead of by the farmer alone. Very interesting stuff to me!

Another thing I found really interesting and useful were the equations! There are equations for everything, from how many acres you need to some many heads of cows, to how many pastures you needs, how long to graze, how much to feed, and they all complement each other. Its really helpful, and as a math lover, extremely satisfying!

Overall, I will be buying it, and will be happy to add it to my growing collection!