Goat meat production is the fastest growing segment of U.S. agriculture, and an estimated 70 percent of all meat consumed globally is from goats. "Storey's ""Guide to Raising Meat Goats" is the essential reference on raising, caring for, and marketing meat goats. This updated edition gives caprine producers the vital information they need to start a meat-goat business or expand their current operation.

This book covers more than 40 indigenous goat breeds and several ecotypes around the globe and describes genotypic and phenotype traits related to species adaptation to harsh environments and climate change. It also addresses sustainable global farming of local goat breeds in different production systems and agro-ecosystems. Discussing three main global regions: Asia, Africa, and Europe, it particularly focuses on adverse environments such as mountain, semiarid and arid regions. The topic of this highly readable book includes the disciplines of animal physiology, breeding, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and veterinary science, and as such it provides valuable information for academics, practitioners, and general readers with an interest in those fields.

The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook is the modern homesteader’s guide to raising, feeding, breeding, selling, and enjoying the noblest animal on the farm—the chicken. From the rooster’s crow in the morning, to the warm egg in the nesting box, chickens are the gateway livestock for almost every homesteader and backyard farm enthusiast. In this book, you’ll learn everything you need to know about raising chickens naturally. Fewell guides you in:

- understanding why chickens do what they do

- creating your very own poultry or egg business

- preventing and treating ailments with herbal remedies

- setting up your property, coop, and brooder

- hatching chicks

- purchasing chickens properly

- cooking delicious recipes with your farm fresh eggs and poultry.

This is heritage chicken keeping skills 101, with a modern twist. Not only will you gain knowledge about naturally keeping chickens through every stage of their lives, but you’ll fully embrace the joy and ease of raising all-natural chickens on your homestead.

From alpha-galactosidases to xylanases, Enzymes in Farm Animal Nutrition provides a comprehensive guide to all aspects associated with enzyme-supplemented animal feeds. It details the history and size of the feed enzyme market, before describing how feed enzymes are manufactured and employed in monogastric, aqua and ruminant diets. This new edition explores considerable advances such as the use of enzymes in fish and shrimp diets, new understanding of how phytases function in the animal, NSPase research and enzymes' extended use in ruminant markets. This book also: - Provides comprehensive coverage of all topics relating to the production, use, co-operativity and analysis of feed enzymes. - Is fully updated throughout, revealing significant developments such as new methods to deliver enzymes (formulations, encapsulations, and liquid spray systems) and advances in enzyme analysis. - Includes brand new chapters on combinations of enzymes, antibiotic-free diets and how to measure response in feed-enzyme trials. Covering biochemistry, enzymology and characteristics relevant to animal feed use, this book forms a valuable resource for academics and students of animal nutrition and production, as well as professionals in the animal feed industry.

We need bees. And they need us. This small, informative and engaging guide to these terrific, tiny creatures will captivate and inspire readers of all ages. Discover the fascinating story of these marvels of nature with this perfect pocket guide, here to celebrate all things bee. Learn about their beehaviours, why they are under threat and how they are essential to our existence. From tips to help identify different species to bee habitats and folklore, this is the ideal companion for any bee lover looking to protect the future of our furry little friends. Inside you'll find: Fascinating facts about all kinds of bees (did you know there are over 20,000 different species?) The essential place bees hold in our ecosystem and the countless benefits we gain from their existence Positive steps we can all take to tackle the serious decline of these incredible insects A variety of recipes and crafts, from easy honey cake to eco-friendly beeswax wraps

This Brief explains and discusses honey and its production from a chemical perspective. It outlines why honey is a special and unique food, being produced by bees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants. Although glucose and fructose are the main constituents of honey, its overall composition is far from being simple or uniform: other substances such as organic acids, enzymes, or minerals are found in varying amounts. In this Brief, the author addresses the factors that influence the composition of the honey as well as the consequences that the composition has on properties such as color, crystallization, density, viscosity, or the refractive index. This Brief also introduces some of the most commonly used quality parameters for the determination of ageing and/or overheating: 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and diastase. Other recently proposed constituents for quality parameters are also mentioned, e.g. 1,2 dicarbonyl compounds (3 deoxyglucosone, methylglyoxal, glyoxal) and furosine, also named 2-furoylmethyl lysine.

"Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks" provides vital information for anyone wanting to keep ducks. It covers everything - choosing the right breed, including rare breeds and hybrid ducks; breeding and rearing practices; feeding; butchering; and, a comprehensive resource section for both the novice and the veteran farmer. New and Expanded features include: expanded breed section; more information on facilities for ducklings, health, and disease treatment; a compendium on marketing and record keeping; section on colour genetics; and, new information on rarer breed conservation.

In the last few years, poultry-keeping has enjoyed massive growth, with heavy TV coverage featuring chefs such as Jamie Oliver. It is another symptom of our weariness of mass-produced, tasteless supermarket food - the appeal of being able to nip into the back garden to get fresh eggs for breakfast, knowing that the hens have been well kept, fed and loved. This highly practical book is aimed at beginners to the hobby and will explain everything you need to know to get started keeping chickens, from how to choose, house, feed and handle them to how many eggs they will lay, their affect on the local ecosystem and protection from foxes.

Everything an amateur pigkeeper needs for success Get Started in Pig Keeping offers amateur pigkeepers everything they need to make a success of this increasingly popular pursuit. Whether you are interested in breeding pigs, in meat production, or just want the pleasure of their company, this book covers legalities, basic equipment, picking breeds, understanding behaviour and how to raise and slaughter pigs. You'll get all of the advice you need on daily maintenance of your animal, from feeding to cleaning, and find ample resources if you wish to produce your own meat - or even market and sell it at a local level. Get Started in Pig Keeping includes: Chapter 1: The starting point Chapter 2: Preparation and knowing the rules Chapter 3: Before your pig arrives Chapter 4: Can keeping pigs be cost effective? Chapter 5: Getting your first pig Chapter 6: Feeding your pig Chapter 7: The health of your pig Chapter 8: Breeding from your own stock Chapter 9: Meat for the freezer Chapter 10: Sales and Marketing Chapter 11: Who's who in the pig world ABOUT THE SERIES People have been learning with Teach Yourself since 1938. With a vast range of practical how-to guides covering language learning, lifestyle, hobbies, business, psychology, and self-help, there's a Teach Yourself book for everything you want to do. Join more than 60 million people who have reached their goals with Teach Yourself, and never stop learning.

'One woman's gloriously lyrical account of life and love as a shepherdess' Mail on Sunday 'Janet White's unfailingly enjoyable book . . . taps into a widespread feeling that we have become cut off from the natural world' TLS 'An immensely enjoyable and heartfelt book: it makes you want to run for the hills' The Lady With an introduction by Colin Thubron As a child in wartime England, Janet White decided that she wanted to live somewhere wild and supremely beautiful, to inhabit and work the landscape. She imagined searching the whole world for a place, high and remote as a sheep stell, quiet as a monastery, challenging and virginal, untouched and unknown. Turning her back on convention, Janet's desire to carve out her own pastoral Eden has taken her from the Cheviot Hills to Sussex and Somerset, via the savage beauty of rural New Zealand. The Sheep Stell tells the tale of a woman before her time; a woman with incredible courage and determination, truly devoted to the land and its creatures. Evocative, unaffected and profound, it is a lost classic. 'A book to share or even fight over if necessary' Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows 'An extraordinary memoir . . . The Sheep Stell is pure joy, one of the most moving books I've read in a long time'Philip Marsden, author of Rising Ground 'This is a strange and lovely book, and quiet as it is, it makes you gasp at the profoundly lived quality of the life it so modestly describes' Jenny Diski 'A hymn to country solitude, lyrical, unpretentious and deeply felt' Colin Thubron

Eddie Straiton is the world's outstanding communicator of veterinary procedures and animal care. He earned the title 'TV Vet' from the long series of television programmes in which he brilliantly demonstrated animal husbandry to a wide audience.

The Sunday Times bestseller full of inspiring tales of life as a shepherdess, by the star of Channel 5's Our Yorkshire Farm. From bestselling author Amanda Owen come more stories of life at Ravenseat, the remote Yorkshire hill farm she shares with husband Clive, eight children and 1,000 sheep. In A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess she describes the age-old cycles of a farming year and the constant challenges the family faces, from being cut off in winter to tending their flock on some of Yorkshire's highest, bleakest moors - land so inaccessible that in places it can only be reached on foot. Writing with her trademark warmth and humour, Amanda takes us into her life as nine-year-old Miles gets his first flock, Reuben takes up the flugelhorn and she gives birth to a new baby girl. She is touched by the epic two-day journey of a mother sheep determined to find her lamb and gives a new home to an ageing and neglected horse. Meanwhile Clive is almost arrested on a midnight stakeout to catch a sheep-worrying dog and becomes the object of affection for a randy young bull. Funny, poignant and charming, A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess is a must for anyone interested in the countryside and those who farm it. 'Amanda Owen is like a breath of fresh air. Amanda's life is one of old-fashioned values, hard graft and plenty of love. She, like her life, is extraordinary' - Ben Fogle

Backyard chickens meet contemporary design! Matthew Wolpe and Kevin McElroy give you 14 complete building plans for chicken coops that range from the purely functional to the outrageously fabulous. One has a water-capturing roof; one is a great example of mid-Modern architecture; and another has a built-in composting system. Some designs are suitable for beginning builders, and some are challenging enough for experts. Complete step-by-step building plans are accompanied by full-colour photographs and detailed construction illustrations.

Prenatal life is the period of maximal development in animals, and it is well recognised that factors that alter development can have profound effects on the embryonic, fetal and postnatal animal. Scientists involved in research on livestock productivity have for decades studied postnatal consequences of fetal development on productivity. Recently, however, there has been a surge in interest in how to manage prenatal development to enhance livestock health and productivity. This has occurred largely due to the studies that show human health in later life can be influenced by events during prenatal life, and establishment of the Fetal Origins and the Thrifty Phenotype Hypotheses. This book, Managing the Prenatal Environment to Enhance Livestock Productivity reviews phenotypic consequences of prenatal development, and provides details of mechanisms that underpin these effects in ruminants, pigs and poultry. The chapters have been divided into three parts: Quantification of prenatal effects on postnatal productivity, mechanistic bases of postnatal consequences of prenatal development and regulators of fetal and neonatal nutrient supply. Managing the Prenatal Environment to Enhance Livestock Productivity is a reference from which future research to improve the level of understanding and capacity to enhance productivity, health and efficiency of livestock in developing and developed countries will evolve. It is particularly timely given the development of molecular technologies that are providing new insight into regulation and consequences of growth and development of the embryo, fetus and neonate.

The nature .and diversity of presentations at the conference on: "Bee Products: Prop erties, Applications and Apitherapy" held at Tel-Aviv on May 26--30, 1996, emphasize the increasing interest of physicians, practitioners, scientists, herbalists, dieticians, cosmeti cians, microbiologists, and beekeepers in different facets of bee products. This volume consists of a selection of 31 contributions presented at the conference and which provide information on the present status of our knowledge in this area. In spite of their diversity, they reflect the mainstream of the conference, namely: "Imported" Prod ucts (honey, pollen and propolis), Exocrine Secretions of Workers (venom, royal jelly). Toxicity and Contaminants, Quality Control, Marketing, Apitherapy, Cosmetics, etc. Since antiquity, honey as well as other bee products were used as food, as a cure for ailments of humans and animals, and as cosmetics. We hope that this volume will contribute to interdisciplinary studies on chemical composition, pharmacological effects, nutrition, and other aspects of bee products. Critical and unbiased experimental research may unravel the yet unknown composition and mode of action of bee products and elucidate many unanswered questions. The noteworthy features of this conference were the participants from all parts of the world and of different cultural backgrounds, who shared their keen interest and curios ity regarding honey bees and their products. We thank all of them for their personal con tribution to the success of this conference."