The Good Living Guide To Keeping Sheep And Other Fiber Animals Housing Feeding Sh

Storey’s Guide to Raising Sheep is the best-selling, most trusted reference for farmers and backyard homesteaders with any size flock. The 5th edition is now updated to include full-color illustrations and photographs throughout, including a gallery of the best breed choices for both meat and fiber. With their small size and gentle dispositions, sheep are one of the easier livestock species to raise and offer varied marketing opportunities, including meat, wool, and milk. Detailed instructions and graphics lead readers through every essential procedure, including shearing, building a lambing shed, breeding and lambing, butchering, and marketing.

Drawing from years of hands-on experience, Paula Simmons and Carol Ekarius provide expert advice on breed selection, lambing, feeding, housing, pasture maintenance, and medical care. You’ll also find tips on profitably marketing your meat and fiber products, as well as information on obtaining organic certifications.

As one of the most popular and beloved farm animals, sheep provide owners with myriad goods from soft wool to fine meat, and, of course, companionship. Living with Sheep contains a wealth of knowledge about raising and caring for a flock of sheep, and is written for the would-be farmer, experienced shepherd and those who simply love the animals and the outdoors. This complete guide covers choosing and acquiring a flock of sheep, how to feed and shelter, prevent illness and treat it if it occurs, handling the breeding and lambing process, gathering wool, and much more.

DIVIf you’ve ever envisioned keeping sheep in your own pasture, be it one or two hobby animals or a large flock, this book is the perfect place to begin. Backed by the National FFA Organization, our acclaimed series of How to Raise guides has helped countless first-time animal owners across the United States confidently care for their new companions. In this freshly updated second edition of How to Raise Sheep, author and farmer Philip Hasheider offers reliable guidance for getting started and going the distance. First, he walks you through all the basics on breeds, housing, fencing, feed requirements, breeding, lambing, showing, and marketing meat and wool. Then, he covers the various farming options (organic, sustainable, and conventional) so you can decide which approach best meets your needs. Accompanied by gorgeous instructional photography, How to Raise Sheep continues to be an essential primer for the newcomer to sheep care, with everything you need to know to raise a healthy, productive flock./div

Full of practical everyday advice, this guide explains how a natural, organic approach to livestock farming produces healthy animals, reduces costs, and increases your operation’s self-sufficiency. Livestock expert Carol Ekarius helps you create a viable farm plan, choose suitable livestock, care for your animals’ health, and confidently manage housing, fencing, and feeding. Case studies of successful farmers provide inspiration as you learn everything you need to know to run a prosperous livestock farm and make the lifestyle of your dreams a reality. This publication conforms to the EPUB Accessibility specification at WCAG 2.0 Level AA.

Animal welfare is attracting increasing interest worldwide, but particularly from those in developed countries, who now have the knowledge and resources to be able to improve the welfare of farm animals. The increased attention given to farm animal welfare in the West derives largely from the fact that the relentless pursuit of ?nancial reward and ef?ciency has led to the development of intensive animal production systems that disturb the conscience of many consumers. In developing countries, human survival is still a daily uncertainty, so that provision for animal welfare has to be balanced against human welfare. Welfare is usually provided for only if it supports the output of the animal, be it food, work, clothing, sport or companionship. In reality there are resources for all if they are properly husbanded in both developing and developed countries. The inequitable division of the world’s riches creates physical and psychological poverty for humans and animals alike in many sectors of the world. Livestock are the world’s biggest land user (FAO, 2002) and the population is increasing rapidly to meet the need of an expanding human population. Populations of farm animals managed by humans are therefore incre- ing worldwide, and in some regions there is a tendency to allocate fewer resources, such as labour, to each animal with potentially adverse consequences on the a- mals’ welfare.