Reviews advances in understanding how breeding and growth affects the development of quality attributes such as fat content and tenderness;Summarises recent research on how management of cattle and carcass handling affects sensory properties;Discusses current research on measuring and optimising quality traits such as colour, flavour and tenderness

Sepp Holzer farms steep mountainsides in Austria, 1,500 metres above sea level. His farm is an intricate network of terraces, raised beds, ponds, waterways and tracks, well covered with productive fruit trees and other vegetation, with the farmhouse neatly nestling amongst them. This is in dramatic contrast to his neighbours spruce monocultures. In this book, Sepp shares the skill and knowledge acquired over his lifetime. He covers every aspect of his farming methods, not just how to create a...

The expert guide to biodynamic farming and gardening. In this revised and updated edition of Grasp the Nettle Peter Proctor tells the reader how to apply biodynamic methods of farming and gardening to a wide range of conditions in New Zealand and in other countries. The book provides practical observations and techniques, and relates these to the spiritual scientific knowlege upon which that biodynamic practice is based. Peter gives tips on how to recognise health...

Reduce your carbon hoofprint! Covering everything from environmentally sensitive trail riding to building a green barn, this guide is packed with simple, practical ways to create a healthy, chemical free, and sustainable environment for you and your horses. Heather Cook provides strategies for collecting rainwater, finding locally sourced feed, using natural cleaning products, and much more. Whether you keep a barn full of horses or rent a stall for just one, you’ll find dozens of suggesti...

An accessible and comprehensive guide, filled with everything you need to set up your own mini-farm and live more self-sufficiently.With the help of this handy book, you can grow all the fruit and vegetables your family needs, raise animals for meat and eggs, keep fish and bees, and even produce firewood on a plot of land of just one acre or less – all alongside your work and family life.Whether you have a garden, a paddock or perhaps the corner of a field,...

This vintage book contains a comprehensive guide to keeping poultry on a small and large scale, with detailed information on selection and breeding, feeding, rearing, housing, plucking, and all other related aspects. Contents include: “The Beginner”, “Breeds and Strains”, “Houses and Appliances”, “Foods and Feeding”, “Hatching”, “Rearing”, “Backyard Poultry Keeping”, “Intensive Poultry Keeping”, “Winter Egg Production”, “Day Old Chicks”, “Ducks”, “Turkeys”, “Geese”, “Guinea Fowls”, “Diseas...

**Golden fields, ripening apples, lowing cattle: our idea of the landscape has been shaped by agriculture, as has the land itself. But in a fast-changing world, how does the great British countryside continue to provide the food we eat?**Most people living in Britain today must go back several generations before they find an ancestor who worked on the land. How much do we really know about those who are supplying us with the most essential things in life: our daily bread and butter, meat a...

Harness the power of beneficial insects to deter pests and reduce crop damage. This comprehensive guide to farming with insects will have you building beetle banks and native plant field borders as you reap a bountiful and pesticide-free harvest. With strategies for identifying the insects you’re trying to attract paired with step-by-step instructions for a variety of habitat-building projects, you’ll soon learn how to employ your own biocontrol conservation tactics. Lay out the brush pile...

Reviews latest research on zoonoses affecting poultry meat such as Salmonella and Campylobacter as well as methods for their control on the poultry farm and in the slaughterhouseSummarises advances in understanding and optimising poultry quality traits such as flavour, colour, tenderness, shelf life and nutritional qualityDiscusses developments in measuring and reducing the environmental impact of poultry production

From leading ecology advocates, a revealing look at our dependence on cows and a passionate appeal for sustainable living.In Cowed, globally recognized environmentalists Denis and Gail Boyer Hayes offer a revealing analysis of how our beneficial, centuries-old relationship with bovines has evolved into one that now endangers us.Long ago, cows provided food and labor to settlers taming the wild frontier and helped the loggers, ranchers, and farmers ...

Summarises current research on pathogenic risks affecting milk and ways they can be controlled on the farm;Reviews ways of measuring and reducing the environmental impact of dairy farming such as better grassland management;Assesses the wider role of dairy farming and how it can be improved in the developing world

Reviews current research on the main pathogens affecting beef;Summarises best practice in pathogen detection and safety management on the farm;Discusses methods for ensuring safety in the food chain from slaughter to consumer handling of fresh beef