Saturday, May 14, 2011

Review: Living with Sheep

Here's a welcome beginner's guide to raising sheep -- a friendly, unpretentious and down-home guide to breeds, feeds, fences and fleeces.

Unlike other texts that deal with specific aspects of ovines, this one goes for the big picture: what sheep are like, why you should want to raise them, where they live, what they eat, and what accommodations you'll have to make to husband them effectively.

"Buying lambs in the spring, raising them on grass for the summer, and slaughtering them in the fall is by far the best place to start if you're getting into shepherding for the first time," author Chuck Wooster advises. But to really get to know sheep, or to be "fully fleeced" as he puts it, requires a full-time, year-round commitment.

Living with Sheep
Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Flock
by Chuck Wooster
Lyons Press, 2007

Continued in ... The Book Stall