A family cow can provide an endless supply of delicious fresh milk, but also requires a large investment of time and money. In this practical guide, Dirk van Loon provides detailed information on choosing an appropriate breed for your needs, nutrition, milking, health care, and bovine behavior. With expert advice on everything you need to know keep your animal healthy, happy, and productive, you’ll soon be enjoying all the benefits a family cow can bring.  This is the basic book -- yet with all the essential details -- for the family that decides to keep a cow for all the benefits she can provide. Learn first the costs, the gains, what she gives and takes. There are practical, fully illustrated chapters that include: - The history and behavior of the cow. - Nutritional needs, from grass to milk. - Buying a cow -- the sources, breeds and factors to consider. - Handling techniques, housing and fencing. - Feeds and feeding -- cow and calf. - Milking and uses of milk. - Health and diseases, breeding and calving. - Growing feed crops, use of manure. The Family Cow is complete with data charts and tables, a glossary of agricultural terms, and source lists of books and equipment. Author Dirk van Loon has written two Storey books, The Family Cow and Small-Scale Pig Raising. He publishes a monthly newspaper for small-scale rural producers called Rural Delivery. Dirk is a graduate of the College of Agriculture at Cornell University and now lives in Nova Scotia. Used Book in Good Condition