Backyard Livestock: Raising Good, Natural Food for Your Family, Third Edition

Unfortunate to write a negative review but necessary for would be buyers.
I found this book to be worthless.. It totally lacked the basic info a true beginner would need. I simply wanted more info on how to raise chickens for meat or eggs.. Thankfully, much more useful info can be found on the internet. I don't know of any books that are more informative at this time.

In my opinion, this book is not for someone who wishes to homestead either organically or "naturally". Right off the bat, the authors mention GMOs and defend their existence by claiming that man is always going to be looking for better ideas, so there's no point in arguing their merits! They admit that GMOs are not strictly 'cross-breeding', but restructuring DNA at the cellular level (and NO ONE knows what will come of that), but again, simply shrug that off as progress. There are other unfortunate misconceptions in it as well, and not a lot of detailed information regarding the various breeds of animals, nor why you should husband one type over another depending upon your needs. All-in-all, this isn't about sustainable homesteading, more like how to create a smaller home version of modern factory farming techniques. Not what I was looking for, at any rate...

This is by far the best book I have ever read on the subject of raising your own livestock. The author not only put great information into the book, he also wrote it by telling stories that helped me to better understand and retain the information. I bought the book to learn more about raising a few cattle for both milk and beef, but after reading about other livestock, my wife and I are looking forward to raising a few other types. It even tought us how to save money on feed by giving recipes and directions for getting your animals feed from nature. A must have book if you want to raise your own poultry, or livestock.

#1 goes into breeds, #2 goes into needs, #3 goes into purchasing AND how to CHOOSE healthy animals, #4 how to house and care for them!! Everything! I am sure there is more to each animal, but this is THE best intro book! I am so happy with my nrew load of reading materials!! I cant wait to get this all started!!

Anyone who would like to put a few animals in the backyard for eggs or meat or milk or everything altogether, will save hundreds of headaches, and probably hundreds of dollars, by buying this book and taking Steven Thomas's suggestions seriously. There are now dozens of these kinds of books out there, and I own a number of them (including "Barnyard In Your Backyard" which is nowhere near as good as this) but none of them comes close to "Backyard Livestock" for practicality of advice, conciseness of expression, and comprehensiveness. I have sheep, chicken, etc., and this has been far more reliable than any competing manuals that I own or know of. You can't not get it! It's indispensable.