Temple Grandin's Guide to Working with Farm Animals: Safe, Humane Livestock Handling Practices for the Small Farm

This book is brilliantly written — easy to understand, with lots of scaffolding and chunking of information, and colorful photos and diagrams. As a new farmer, it helped me realize I was doing some key things wrong that had been passed down to me from other "experienced" farmers here in the South. I learned how to talk to my animals, move them through gates, etc. I now get sad when I see the big ear tags flopping on the cows. Temple is doing the Lord's work for these animals. I love that she's sharing her knowledge and helping us have humane farms. I will purchase more of her books!

Great book full of information that many people raising animals don’t know about or won’t listen to. It is a must have book if you are going to raise animals. I have worked on ranches all my life and I find this is the best way to raise animals but few abide by her valuable principles. My animals and I are much better off from studying this (and other) Grandin authored books. I wish I had found her genius thirty-five years ago. My animals would have had much better lives.

Bought this book for my wife, who raises cattle. She said it's an excellent book with a lot of pertinent information fir anyone with farm animals

I am a farmer with a small holding--5 cows, 5 hogs, chickens, dogs. I've been frustrated in the past working with some of these animals and have often felt like a brute because I had to force them to do what I wanted them to do. After reading this book, I have a much better understanding of how they behave, and more importantly, WHY they behave that way, and I have been able to adjust my handling style to meet the need. I'm so very grateful Temple Grandin shared this knowledge, and I am very impressed that she can see things they way she sees them. Although this book is written for animal handlers with many more animals than me, it still applies to even us smaller handlers, and I am impressed by her insights. If you work with animals, you really need to read this book. Also, her ability to use what many see as a setback (her autism) is wonderful! I would learn from her any time.

Temple Grandin is a genius. Her autism is a gift that has served her well and has benefited animals far and wide, permanently. Her designs alone for the corral and squeeze have changed how cows are treated. Add the intelligence of treating them properly and learn the RIGHT WAY how to take care of your animals!

If you want to know why animals act and react the way they do, this is the book to read! Temple is so attuned to animals.

I'm a first-time cattle owner and purchased several books to help me work with a bottle-fed calf and a heifer. This book is by far the most useful in terms of understanding aspects of farm animal behavior and also provides great plans for facilities, other aspects of management, etc. I highly recommend it to anyone - regardless of the amount of experience they have with livestock. Incredibly interesting and useful!

Good book for anybody with animals.

Obrigado. Estou inteiramente satisfeito com o livro, maravilhoso, extremamente util para quem deseja manejar de modo humanitario e sustentavel os seus animais na Fazenda Joao Saibro.

È un libro davvero unico nel suo genere. Oltre ad essere estremamente curato dal punto di vista grafico (immagino stupende e molto ben fatte), il contenuto non è da meno. Temple Grandin è in grado di andare subito al sodo e di consigliare in maniera estremamente dettagliata ma allo stesso tempo semplice e chiara come comportarsi in maniera corretta con gli animali da reddito a 360°. Il tema fondamentale che fa da sottofondo è il fatto che se si capisce e si rispetta cosa prova l'animale in nostra presenza, il nostro lavoro e la nostra vita avrà solo dei vantaggi. Molto bella anche la considerazione finale sulla eticità nel consumo di carne Il libro è scritto in un inglese estremamente semplice e scorrevole, e lo consiglio ad allevatori e veterinari che davvero amano il loro lavoro ed hanno a cuore il benessere psicofisico dei loro animali.

I run a diversified small farm with pigs, meat chickens and vegetables. A year ago we started our herd of beef cattle. The concepts and tips in this book have helped me work with cattle and pigs. Sometimes you need to step back from a (recurring) situation and see the bigger picture or notice something you didn't notice before and this book helped me do both. The book is directed at (smaller, e.g. 50 head of cattle or less) livestock farms whereas her "Humane Livestock Handling" was directed at (larger) processing facilities. It proceeds logically from seeing things from the animals' point of view, to how to work with the animals as a result, to several designs of facilities within which you work with the animals. It emphasizes beef cattle but much is transferable to other species (as she says), and goats, sheep and pigs do receive some specific comments. Another commentator found the book repetitious, but I appreciate that when I have a specific problem, e.g. getting cattle to move through a gate, the specific procedure along with the overarching goal and the concepts that gave rise to the procedure are all in one place in the book. This makes the book quite useful as a reference when you need advice on a specific situation (and can't be flipping through the book in the field in the middle of the rain).

My son-in-law organic sheep farmer has enjoyed reading this book, it had been on his wish list....

Fantastic advice for any smallholder or small farmer on handling farm animals from an author who understands them very well. Photographs capture animal body language that is essential for new farmers to understand. Excellent advice based on research and author's own acute intuition when working with animals. A must read for any newcomer to keeping livestock!