With the wide selection of information available out there in books and on the internet it can be a little confusing trying to find the correct information out there. Here I compiled a list of the 5 best books that could help you in improving your operation.
Disclaimer: I am not receiving anything from these sources. This is just my opinion.
Storey’s Guide to Raising Beef Cattle
I guess let’s begin with the most obvious choice. This book is very well known among the cattle industry and has been referenced to many times.
This book provides expert advice on everything that you could possibly need in order to raise beef cattle. There are sections about breed selection, calving, feeding and anything else that you could need to know. It provides information not only for beginning livestock producers but could even help experienced ones as well.
The Cattle Health Handbook
One thing that is bound to happen is that eventually one or more of your animals will get sick. Knowing the signs of illness and how to treat them could save you a lot of money in both lost revenue and vet bills.
This book provides not only theories on how to treat animals but also gives you actual hands on tips that makes this information very valuable to anyone.
The information covered in here tells you how to identify and treat any of the common injuries or sickness that you will encounter on the ranch as well as some that may not happen that often. It also covers the causes of certain ailments giving you information on possibly how to prevent them from happening again.
Humane Livestock Handling
This book is written by Dr. Temple Grandin one of the most influential advocates of humane livestock handling in the world today. She provides her years of experience in developing stress-free facility designs and low stress livestock handling right before your eyes here.
In order to provide a stress-free environment for your cattle you would first need to understand their natural behavior and their temperament. All that information is covered in the first part of this book. She discusses the best ways for moving cattle not only in the pasture but also in paddocks and feedlot pens.
The second half of the book provides plans and diagrams for constructing the right facilities in order to put the first half in to practice.
Range Management: Principles and practices
In order to be productive you should also know how to take care of the land. Range Management is a good introductory into the science of range management.
In this book it covers the key principles and best practices of range management in the modern world. It combines well both scientific studies and practical applications that make it very easy to understand.
This book was one of the required readings for a range management course that I was taking at A&M and I still find myself looking back through it to find information.
How to raise Cattle
This book provides all the information that you could want to know about raising cattle. The good thing about this book is that it provides information not only for the beginner but the longtime rancher as well.
It guides you through all the steps in raising cattle from beginning to end. It covers how to choose a certain breed and how to obtain the cattle. Providing proper feed to the concerns of animal health are also covered in here as well.
As I said before these are just a few of my personal choices for books that could be invaluable for anyone wanting to either start out in raising cattle or just wanting to improve what they already have. If you are wanting to get your hands on one or all of these books I provided a link on where you can purchase them.
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