| Foreword | p. ix |
| Preface | p. x |
| Acknowledgments | p. xii |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| The Fundamentals of Grass-Based Beef | p. 5 |
| The Great Herds and Their Grasslands | p. 6 |
| The Ticking of Geologic Time | |
| The Great Herds | |
| Lessons from the Herd | |
| Genetics and Breeding: Selecting the Right Animals for Your Herd | p. 18 |
| The Pitfalls of Single-Trait Selection | |
| Environment and Climate | |
| Characteristics of the Ideal Breeding Animal | |
| Culling Animals: Training Your Predatory Eye | |
| Breeding for Your Target Market | |
| The Cattle Year on Grass | p. 33 |
| The Calving Season and Predator Exposure | |
| The Calf: Birth to Sexual Development | |
| The Heifer Calf: Sexual Development to Calving | |
| Photoperiod: Sunlight and Fertility | |
| The Bull Calf: Sexual Development to Breeding | |
| Cattle Processing: The Human Role in the Cattle Year | |
| Marketing Grass-Fed Cattle | |
| Moving the Calving Season | |
| Grass and Grazing | p. 56 |
| The Rumen: The Forge that Turns Grass into Beef | |
| Root Reserves and the Ideal Grazing Interval | |
| A Recipe for Healthy Soil | |
| Grass Varieties | |
| Rejuvenating Old Pastures | |
| Infrastructure and Management | p. 65 |
| Electric Fences and Rotational Grazing | p. 66 |
| Factors to Consider | |
| Energizers | |
| Permanent Wires | |
| Posts and Braces | |
| Insulators | |
| Permanent Gates | |
| Portable Electric Fencing | |
| Training Cattle to Respect Electric Fences | |
| Understanding the Goals of Pasture Rotation | |
| Pasture Rotation: Herd Migration in Your Own Backyard | |
| Training the Herd for Pasture Moves | |
| Managing the Calving Season on Pasture | |
| Livestock Water | p. 86 |
| How Much Water Do Cattle Need to Drink? | |
| Peak Water Supply | |
| Water Quality | |
| Direct Access to Open Water | |
| Pumping Water | |
| Water Storage | |
| Piping Water | |
| Cattle Behavior at the Water Trough | |
| Rotational Grazing Patterns and Water | |
| Laying Pipe | |
| Winter-Grazing Patterns and Water | |
| Watershed Conservation: Managing Riparian Areas | |
| Planning for Winter Grazing | p. 106 |
| Winter Grazing: The Twelve-Month Plan | |
| Supplementation and Forage Analyses | |
| Low-Cost Winter Feed for the Transition to Winter Grazing | |
| Planning for Drought | p. 127 |
| A History Lesson | |
| Preparing a Drought Plan | |
| Managing Your Herd | p. 132 |
| Integrated Herd Management | |
| Low-Stress Handling | |
| Pests, Parasites, and Diseases | p. 153 |
| The Mechanisms of Disease | |
| Preventing Disease | |
| Specific Diseases, Pests, and Parasites | |
| Making Healthy Soil for Healthy Animals | |
| Complementary Grazing Species | |
| Soil Fertility | p. 165 |
| The Importance of Soil Analyses | |
| What Does the Cow Think of Soil Fertility? | |
| How Healthy Soil and Grass Work | |
| Calcium and Magnesium Revisited: Proper Ratios Are Critical | |
| Organic Matter, Humus, and Nitrogen | |
| The Scoop on Macronutrients | |
| And a Pinch of Micronutrients | |
| Weeds | p. 182 |
| What Is a Weed? | |
| Variety Is All | |
| When and Why Certain Plants Emerge | |
| Quick Fixes Versus Long-Term Solutions | |
| Educate Yourself, Then Put Your Cattle to Work | |
| Weeds to Remedy Nutrient Deficiencies | |
| Soil Moisture and Irrigation | p. 192 |
| Decreasing Evaporation | |
| Reducing Runoff | |
| Increasing Water Infiltration | |
| Take Responsibility for Water | |
| The Disadvantages of Irrigation | |
| Calculating Your Irrigation Needs | |
| Business Planning and Marketing | p. 205 |
| Land and Equipment | p. 206 |
| Acquiring Land for your Natural, Grass-Based Cattle Enterprise | |
| Equipment | |
| Market Options | p. 211 |
| Commodity-Market Opportunities | |
| Niche-Market Opportunities | |
| Determining Your Target Market | |
| Three Case Studies | |
| Stocker Cattle | p. 223 |
| The Cattle Cycle | |
| Sell/Buy Economics | |
| Stocker Logistics | |
| Grass-Finished Beef | p. 231 |
| The Art of Grass Finishing | |
| The Health Benefits of Grass-Fed Beef | |
| Lessons from the Slaughterhouse | |
| Cutting and Wrapping | |
| Inspections | |
| Pricing Your Meat | |
| Pickup and Delivery | |
| Cooking Grass-Fed Beef | |
| Organic Certification | p. 246 |
| Seeking Certification After the Transition | |
| Headaches of the CertificationProcess | |
| Choosing the Best | |
| Solving the Most Common Challenges | |
| Dynamic Marketing | p. 251 |
| Developing a Profile of Your Target Customers | |
| Demystifying Product Labels | |
| Your Advertising Strategy and Label | |
| Market Exposure | |
| Helpful Business-Management Tools | p. 262 |
| Importance and Urgency | |
| Getting the Biggest Bang for your Buck | |
| Weighing Decisions, Solving Problems, and Handling Crises | |
| 10 Percent Chance, 90 Percent Work | |
| Your Unfair Advantage | |
| Your Business Plan: Putting Principles into Practice | p. 267 |
| Your Goals and Market Opportunities | p. 268 |
| Your Business Plan | |
| Starting with Goals | |
| Your Goals | |
| Assessing Your Market Environment | |
| Your Financial Plans | p. 274 |
| Determining the Focus of Your Business | |
| Conscious Profit Planning | |
| Determining the Price of Your Direct-Marketed Beef | |
| Your Cattle Year on Grass | p. 295 |
| Planning the Ideal Cattle Year on Grass | |
| Your Grazing Infrastructure | p. 300 |
| Planning for Your Herd's Water Requirements | |
| Preparing Your Farm Map | |
| Piping Water | |
| Your Grazing Plan | p. 311 |
| Your Summer-Grazing Plan | |
| Your Winter-Grazing Plan: Managing the Grass Reserve | |
| The Winter Grazing Map | |
| Your Herd Nutrition Plan | p. 324 |
| Developing Your Herd Nutrition Program | |
| Procuring Samples for Forage Analyses | |
| What the Livestock Nutritionist Needs to Know | |
| Locating a Livestock Nutritionist | |
| Formulating Supplements and Monitoring BCS | |
| Your Grass-Finishing Plan | p. 327 |
| Grass-Finishing Essentials | |
| Slaughterhouse Considerations | |
| Your Marketing Plan | p. 331 |
| Developing Profiles of Your Target Customers | |
| Designing Your Product Label | |
| Formulating an Advertising Strategy | |
| Planning for Adversity | p. 334 |
| Drought | |
| Financial Preparedness | |
| Crisis Management | |
| Planning for Change | p. 344 |
| Committing to the Change | |
| Plan Thoroughly | |
| Moving the Calving Season | |
| Turning on Your Herd's Migration | |
| Switching to Winter Grazing | |
| Making Additional Changes | |
| Epilogue | p. 348 |
| Metric Conversion Chart | p. 349 |
| Glossary | p. 350 |
| Resources | p. 359 |
| Bibliography and Additional Readings | p. 361 |
| Index | p. 363 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
