List of Resources for a Beginner!

Hi Adam! I have no farming experience, but I have been trying to acquire as much knowledge as I can before I embark on my farming journey. My grandfather owned and operated a small dairy farm, but sold all of his dairy cows in the 70's and decided to get a job delivering milk for another larger dairy. He purchased a few beef cattle just to keep in the pasture, but he loved dairy cows. He passed away and all of his cows were sold. I was very young, and I never had the opportunity to learn anything from him. My husband and I do not own any cows or any other animals yet, but we hope to purchase a small herd in the next few years and start a small diversified farm. In addition to your book, Dairy Farming: The Beautiful Way, what other resources and books do you recommend? I have seen a few books that you have listed such as Management Intensive Grazing by Jim Gerish and Quality Pasture by Allan Nation. Thanks so much!

Hi Robin,
That's great that you are interested to revisit your ancestors footsteps by milking some dairy cows. In all reality, most of us are simply revisiting the footsteps of our ancestors, since until just a few generations ago, we all were family farmers.

When I started out on this path a decade ago, the most striking thing to me was the lack of information on holistic dairy farming. There are lots of great books of beef cows, but virtually nothing on dairy. The two books that I found useful were 'The Family Cow' by Dirk van Loon, and 'Dairy Farming' by Wilber Fraser. 'The Family Cow' is good, but unfortunately not very permie, in that the author talks a lot about grain feeding which is not good for the health of the cows or the nutrition of their milk. Fraser's book is excellent, though it was published in 1930 and is difficult to source. It also is talking about generally larger-scale dairy farming than my small herd approach. Nevertheless, both books are worth a read, and influenced my understanding of the dairy cow greatly.

The books on pasture management by Gerish and Nation are top notch for understanding the feed resource for our cows. They are essential reading. 'Salad Bar Beef' by Joel Salatin is also good, though there are major management differences between beef and dairy.

Hope these suggestions help. I wrote my book specifically to address the void in information for folks like you starting out your own small dairy, so I am confident that it will provide you with the information you need to succeed in your dairy dreams!

good luck!