All Flesh Is Grass The Pleasures and Promises of Pasture Farming by Gene Logsdon. Pasture rotation, or as the author prefers to call it – pasture farming, is one of my favorite homesteading topics. It has become common practice to keep animals in a single pen where they can eat the grass when it grows, and bring them hay when it doesn’t. Year round grass grazing is fascinating to me. This book is a wonderful account of a farmer who changed his pasture management methods, and is aiming to be able to graze his animals on pasture year round.
What I Loved
There is a whole chapter of inspiring stories from farmers who are raising their livestock on pasture. As a consumer, I jumped for joy! As a small homesteader, it gives me confidence that we can reclaim our pastures just like they did. All of the farmers he mentioned are in different climates and growing different grasses.
Gene Logsdon compiled hundreds of years of experience from the fellow pasture farmers that he interviewed. His experience alone is astounding. He goes through a variety of different grasses and plants giving the pros and cons.
A short lesson about the history of raising animals on grass. To learn about how grain farming and tractors came to be was fascinating. It hasn’t been that many years since farmers depended on raising quality grass for their livestock. Harvesting grain without tractors was way too much work.
What I Didn’t Like
Ohio is where Gene Logsdon lived and farmed, so most of his experience relates to that area. He didn’t even mention growing grass in the desert. There was still much for me to learn being in a different climate, but I would have loved to hear a success story from someone in an area with little rainfall.
It is also evident that he really liked to grow corn. Corn was a staple in his pasture management, and that is not a grain that I am interested in growing for my animals. He recommends growing corn many times throughout the book.
Why I Recommend All Flesh Is Grass
This book gives ample details about how to get livestock to turn grass into meat, milk and eggs. I have several new ideas to improve our fall pastures this year. Several pages are now bookmarked that I plan to read again when we get closer to bringing home our own dairy cow.
About the Author
Gene Logsdon is the author of All Flesh Is Grass. He was a writer, farmer, and journalist, and published more than two dozen books, both practical and philosophical, on all aspects of rural life and affairs. He wrote a popular blog, The Contrary Farmer, as well as an award-winning column for the Carey, Ohio, Progressor Times. Gene was also a contributor to Farming Magazine and The Draft Horse Journal. He lived and farmed in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, where he died in 2016.
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