Product Description

This no-nonsense how-to guide for beginners offers detailed information on choosing a calf, building and maintaining housing, nutrition, feeding, and daily care. Readers will also find instructions for slaughtering and butchering. 120,000 copies in print.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #491569 in Books
• Published on: 1976-01-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From the Back Cover
A freezer full of fine beef at half meet market costs (and much less than that if you raise the hay and grain too)? That's just one of the many rewards of raising your own beef calf!

The work involved in the calf's care? About 10 minutes morning and evening and 20 minutes of the weekend for stall cleaning. But it is everyday.

To raise your own calf you need a simple but snug shelter for the first winter months, a little equipment, a stock of hay and calf starter feed, and later about two acres of land for pasture.

Raising a Calf for Beef, delightfully illustrated by Paula Savastano and Cathy Baker, assesses first the pros and cons of raising a beef calf. It tells what's needed, with detailed chapters on:
* Housing and pasture
* Feeds (milk and calf starter mixtures)
* Raising your own feed
* Choosing a calf
* Veterinarian help
* Caring for the newborn calf (what to do everyday)
* Weaning your calf
* A barn medicine chest
* Upsets you can treat and what to watch for
* Keeping records
* Fattening the calf
* Butchering time
* Your beef on the table

After you've raised your calf to 800-1000 pounds -- or larger if you want -- off he goes for butchering and packaging. For those who want to do this themselves, a special section is included on slaughtering, butchering, and cutting beef for the freezer. Each step is illustrated with special drawings or photographs.

It you're interested in raising a beef calf, Phyllis Hobson's clear and unique guide will tell you all you need to know.

About the Author
Phyllis Hobson is the author of several Storey Books and Garden Way Publishing titles including Satisfying Soups, Making & Using Dried Foods, Raising a Calf For Beef, and Tan your Hide! She lives in Zapata, Texas.

Customer Reviews

Short on husbandry details - long on butchering details...
I'm sorry Phyllis, but I'm going to have to slam this book hard against the ground. I bought it at the local Co-Op at a time when I desparately needed important details for raising a small herd of beef calves. But the details just weren't there leaving me feel burned for the.. money.. I spent. Assuming a person is raising one little perfect calf - then the book will maybe get them through. But important information about eye problems, footrot, branding (what if your calf runs off?), giving shots (like, how do you get a calf on the ground to medicate it..not all calves will let you just poke a needle in them), and parasites are omitted or dismissed with the advice to "call the vet." I just couldn't figure out what to do next from reading the book - cover to cover, and that's not what you need for a book like this. It's not a practical guide for the events that actually happen when raising calves. For example, Ms. Hobson goes through the details of blending a delicious grain ration from homegrown gardens for your one calf. Isn't it far more practical and realistic to buy inexpensive pre-mixes from a feed store when you need them? Can you really replace in time and effort the economies of scale of Nebraska grown corn with your little garden? Why waste the time? Similarly, she advises growing hay - but she leaves the reader on their own to figure out how to get it in a bale. Again, for one calf? However, The book is excellent on one topic: slaughtering. Half the book is devoted to it. If you want to heave up a carcass in your driveway (instead of hiring a butcher), you can probably find a way to do it with the excellent instructions in the book. Again, practical tips, like what to do with the hide, aren't included for some reason in the otherwise excellent step-by-step butchering directions. In conclusion, Ms. Hobson's book has too few details for practical application on a living calf...meaning that if you buy this book, you'll probably need to buy another one as soon as you get your hands dirty.

Hunh? What next?
I feel this book left me with more unanswered questioned than answers. What should I expect from the calf? How do I get it from place of purchase to the field? What do I do with the left-over animal parts from butchering? Where do I get the calf? Would it be better to buy a heifer? What are the advantages?