Reading

I’ve been re-reading Storey’s Guide to Raising Beef Cattle, the book by Heather Smith that is famous for teaching people the basics of the cattle industry.

They say roughly one million households raise cattle in America, it’s hard to go to small town outside of the most rugged mountain country and not see cattle or their distinctive barnyard smell.

Cattle grow in nearly every rural part of America, they need little more than grass or hay, water and salt and some careful care and supervision of their pastures and hay and shelter during the winter months.

Some of the oldest, long rooted families in our country farm, beef and dairy and the crops that support them fill our valleys. One out of four acres are field crops in New York, a number only second to the vast forests that cover our mountains and hill tops.

Cows are living, breathing animals, they can have a wide variety of health problems and conditions. They require a lot of feed and water but fortunately they’re not particularly picky about grass, as long as it’s free of manure and a handful of noxious weeds. They can break down grasses to produce energy to feed their growth.

Cattle have a larger than life impacts on the land and have a defining impact on communities and their identity. It’s always interesting to understand more about the lives of these large animals.