How To Not Go Broke Ranching

"Walt Davis spent more than fifty years as a working rancher in Texas and Oklahoma. He has lived all of the joys and all of the sorrows that go with ranch life and it is his unbiased opinion that ranching is (depending on how it is done) either the world's best way to make a living or an unending struggle against nature that will break the strongest spirit. He soon realized that agriculture is a biological rather than an industrial process."--Back cover.

Knowledge Rich Ranching is not a how-to book on raising cattle. It is a book on how the cattle business works. It has not been sanitized nor edited by Ms. Rosy Scenario. It is about the way things really are. It is about fear and greed, and how the commodity business eats alive the naive and unaware. In today's market, it is knowledge that separates the rich from the rest. Knowledge Rich Ranching is packed with guidelines for how to read and profit from the upside-down swings of the cattle cycle. It describes various bookkeeping methods and tax tips; covers cost cutting to eliminate profit leaks; reveals the secrets of high profit grass farms and ranches; details strategies for using Management-intensive Grazing in humid and arid climates as well as during adverse weather conditions. And it explains family and business structure with suggestions for estate planning to keep today's ranch or grass farm viable and profitable for future generations. While focused on raising cattle, the principles in Knowledge Rich Ranching apply equally to producers of other livestock enterprises--sheep, in particular, which run backwards to the cattle cycle and can add a complementary enterprise to an existing cattle operation. Anyone who has profit as his or her goal will benefit from this book. It is the first to cover the business management principles of grassland farming and ranching.

Gabe Brown didn't set out to change the world when he first started working alongside his father-in-law on the family farm in North Dakota. But as a series of weather-related crop disasters put Brown and his wife, Shelly, in desperate financial straits, they started making bold changes to their farm. Brown--in an effort to simply survive--began experimenting with new practices he'd learned about from reading and talking with innovative researchers and ranchers. As he and his family struggled to keep the farm viable, they found themselves on an amazing journey into a new type of farming: regenerative agriculture. Brown dropped the use of most of the herbicides, insecticides, and synthetic fertilizers that are a standard part of conventional agriculture. He switched to no-till planting, started planting diverse cover crops mixes, and changed his grazing practices. In so doing Brown transformed a degraded farm ecosystem into one full of life--starting with the soil and working his way up, one plant and one animal at a time. In Dirt to Soil Gabe Brown tells the story of that amazing journey and offers a wealth of innovative solutions to our most pressing and complex contemporary agricultural challenge--restoring the soil. The Brown's Ranch model, developed over twenty years of experimentation and refinement, focuses on regenerating resources by continuously enhancing the living biology in the soil. Using regenerative agricultural principles, Brown's Ranch has grown several inches of new topsoil in only twenty years The 5,000-acre ranch profitably produces a wide variety of cash crops and cover crops as well as grass-finished beef and lamb, pastured laying hens, broilers, and pastured pork, all marketed directly to consumers. The key is how we think, Brown says. In the industrial agricultural model, all thoughts are focused on killing things. But that mindset was also killing diversity, soil, and profit, Brown realized. Now he channels his creative thinking toward how he can get more life on the land--more plants, animals, and beneficial insects. "The greatest roadblock to solving a problem," Brown says, "is the human mind."

Small-scale meat processing and preservation for the home cook. Nutrition, environmental impact, ethics, sustainability-it seems like there's no end to the factors we must consider when we think about our food. At the center of the dietary storm is animal-based agriculture. Was your beef factory-farmed or pasture-raised? Did your chicken free range, or was it raised in a battery cage? Have you, in short, met your meat? Most efforts to unravel the complexities of the production and consumption of animal protein tend to pit meat eaters and vegetarians against each other. The Ethical Meat Handbook seeks a middle ground, arguing that by assuming full responsibility for the food on our fork, and more importantly, the route by which it gets there, animals can be an optimal source of food, fiber, and environmental management. This hands-on, practical guide covers: Integrating animals into your garden or homestead Basic butchery: whole animal, primals, subprimals, and end-cuts, including safety and knife skills Charcuterie: history, general science and math principles, tooling up, and recipes Culinary highlights: getting creative, preparing difficult cuts, sauces, ferments, difficult cuts and extras. Eating diversely may be the most revolutionary and proactive action we can take to ensure the sustainability of our food system. The Ethical Meat Handbook challenges us to take a hard look at our individual dietary choices, increase our self-reliance and at the same time enjoy delicious food that benefits our health and our planet.

Greg Judy was forced to liquidate his cow herd to pay debt in 1996. By the end of the following year he was dead broke and figured the family farm was history. A quote from Allan Nation, editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer magazine changed his whole view of ranching. Nation said, "Your sole purpose should be not to own the land, but to make a living from the land." Inspired by that approach, Judy started looking for idle, non-developed pastureland. By focusing on leasing rather than owning land, his grazing operation grew from 40 stockers to 1100 head. By custom grazing on leased land he was able to pay his entire farm and home loan within three years. Today he has four farms and leases 12. No Risk Ranching, Custom Grazing on Leased Land describes how he found and managed his first and subsequent leases. He offers a detailed guide for other graziers to follow on how to find idle land to lease; calculate the cost of a lease; draft and write a land lease contract (with examples included); develop good water and portable fencing on leased land; promote wildlife and improve timber stands; keep accurate records and more. No Risk Ranching was written to help other graziers from making the same mistakes Judy made. He writes, "I am convinced that in the USA our pastures are one of our most underutilized natural resources. I am not against land ownership. I just feel like it is an awful hardship on a new blooming grazing business."

Adding to a growing body of knowledge about how the social-ecological dynamics of the Anthropocene affect human health, this collection presents strategies that both address core challenges, including climate change, stagnating economic growth, and rising socio-political instability, and offers novel frameworks for living well on a finite planet. Rather than directing readers to more sustainable ways to structure health systems, Health in the Anthropocene navigates the transition toward social-ecological systems that can support long-term human and environmental health, which requires broad shifts in thought and action, not only in formal health-related fields, but in our economic models, agriculture and food systems, ontologies, and ethics. Arguing that population health will largely be decided at the intersection of experimental social innovations and appropriate technologies, this volume calls readers to turn their attention toward social movements, practices, and ways of living that build resilience for an era of systemic change. Drawing on diverse disciplines and methodologies from fields including anthropology, ecological economics, sociology, and public health, Health in the Anthropocene maps out alternative pathways that have the potential to sustain human wellbeing and ecological integrity over the long term.

A Ranching Saga tells the story of father and son pioneer ranchers in the Southwest. Around the turn of the century, William Electious Halsell and Ewing Halsell were integral to the growing ranching industry in Texas and Oklahoma. Through newspaper accounts, legal documents, personal correspondence, and interviews with family members, friends, and acquaintances, A Ranching Saga recounts the lives of these two keen businessmen, proud civic leaders, and philanthropists. What is revealed is a legacy of hard work, moral character, and compassion, as well as a close relationship with the land. Texas historian William Curry Holden sifts through correspondence, reports and statistics, and extensive research to tell of three generations of the Halsell family, from their arrival in Texas in 1854 to the mid-twentieth century. Holden enriches the family narrative with personal accounts of the places, geology, flora, fauna, weather, economics, and history of the region. He interviewed more than 150 people to understand the characters and personalities of the two men whose cultural influence on Texas and the Southwest region spans more than a century. Illustrated with nearly two dozen drawings by José Cisneros , A Ranching Saga is the biography of family whose destiny was realized in the cattle they nurtured, the land they loved, and the people they encouraged along the way.

The tools you need to raise and care for beef cattle Beef cattle farming is a business that continues to grow in the United States and around the world, and it will only grow larger as the demand for beef continues to increase. Raising Beef Cattle For Dummies provides you with an introduction to all aspects of raising beef cattle. Packed with expert tips from experienced farmers, it gives any level of cattle-raiser the tools needed to increase the quantity and quality of your farm's output and maintain a healthy herd. Raising Beef Cattle For Dummies is the go-to resource for aspiring cattle farmers. With important information on health, handling, and breeding, and detailed coverage of equipment and supplies, it is teeming with useful information that anyone interested in raising cattle should have. Advice on which beef cattle breeds to rear The prevention and treatment of common diseases Caring for pregnant heifers and calving procedures Dietary specifications dependent on breed Guidance on humane management Creating an open and safe pasture habitat If you're an aspiring cattle farmer looking to begin raising cattle or an established raiser interested in expanding your herd, Raising Beef Cattle For Dummies has you covered.