Sunday, February 28, 2016

Growing a Farmer Review Part 2

Raising Animals

Mr. Kurtwood started to raise animals to keep the eternity of pasture. He started from the sheep and goat. The primary difference between the sheep and goat is whether they correspond to human existence. The sheep and cut and friendly which human raise them for lamb meat. Goat is aggressive and a potential troublemaker. Human-less likely raises the goat because they keep breaking out the fence and destroying plants. In pasture business, how you fence the animals and how to use the land is critical for a farmer. A movable fence is a big helper for raising animals, which allow them to move around. In the same time, moving the sheep greatly help the grass consumption in the land. It will assist the farmer to use the pasture land in a more sustainable way. In the same time, due to the efficient way of using the pasture, it also avoids using of the fertilizer.

Later, he introduces cow on his farm, which represents Kurtwood officially become a full-time farmer. The cow needs to be taken care of every day, and he cannot leave the farm. The cow he has is slightly different from the big farm. He raises the Jersey cow, which has very low dairy production. The process of the dairying is also very complicated. He also encounters a death and slaughter of his first cow. It is a disease which has a low curable rate. Mr. Kurtwood has no choice but killing her. By gaining more and more experience, he also gives lots of tips about how to raise the cows, purchase the cow and diary the cow. It is a very fun process when I am first reading this book. I started to think the process of raising is quite enjoyable. The milk as a production which is consumed daily, I have never thought where and how the milk come from. From reading this book, I started to question about where and how is the product is made. The author in somehow convinced me to think more about the food, which potentially increase the fun of eating it and purchasing it. He also takes about a different dairy, the raw milk. In this section, he gives us a glimpse of the relationship between politics and farming.


In general, from one aspect, it may serve the purpose of marketing his farm. However, I think the writer’s intention is from the way he records his experience as a farmer to show people how the food was grown how the cattle and fowl are raised. The experience is from first subject view, which greatly increase interests of the experience. It is much better than the book which explains the procedures. The purpose for this book is to let me know the process of how food and meat were produced or intrigue the curiosity of people. 

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