Sue Weaver – författare

Friendly, dependable, intelligent, and easy to care for, donkeys are increasingly prized by small-scale farmers, horse lovers, and animal enthusiasts. Donkeys not only pull carts, carry riders, and tote gear for hikers, but they also make terrific stable companions and livestock guardians, and they are renowned for their skills in transport, raising water, milling, and farm tillage. They're also gentle with children and the elderly, making them a popular therapy animal and family pet. A donkey is not simply a long-eared horse, however; understanding the donkey's distinctive traits is critical to the animal's well-being and usefulness."The Donkey Companion", by Sue Weaver, offers a comprehensive overview of this hardy creature - the most complete, up-to-date reference of its kind. Here is everything donkey enthusiasts need to know about the animal's history, physiology, behaviour, breed characteristics, daily care, and health needs. Readers will come to understand this versatile animal, and through understanding will become skilled, satisfied owners."The Donkey Companion" offers detailed information about different breeds and types; provides tips for finding and selecting the right animal; explains donkeys' daily care and health requirements; and guides readers through the nuances of training, riding, driving, and breeding. The book is enhanced with fun facts, training tips, quotes, photographs, illustrations, and additional resources. From foaling to first aid, and from grooming to professional showing, this extensive guide offers everything a donkey owner needs to get the most out of this gentle, hardworking animal.

Whether you want to the make most of a small plot of land or add diversity to a large farm, raising miniature livestock can be a fun and profitable experience. With expert advice on choosing a breed that suits your needs, Sue Weaver shows you how to house, feed, and care for miniature goats, sheep, donkeys, pigs, horses, cattle, and llamas. You’ll be inspired by profiles of successful breeders as you learn everything you need to know to keep your miniature livestock healthy and productive.

Pulling carts around the farm or serving as loyal pack animals, goats are naturally hardworking and make for friendly companions. This straightforward guide teaches you how to choose, house, feed, train, and breed the best goats for your space and needs. Whether you want to churn out fresh dairy products, harvest soft cashmere for knitting, or keep goats as playful pets, The Backyard Goat makes it easy to enjoy the benefits of owning goats, with no experience necessary.

Raise a flock of sheep in your backyard. Even with a limited amount of space, you can enjoy homegrown fleece and fresh milk, as well as the endearing company of these family-friendly animals. Sue Weaver provides all the instructions you need for selecting a breed; housing and feeding; harvesting fleece; and milking. With simple recipes for making cheese and yogurt, and tips on processing fleece for wool, you’ll enjoy the varied and numerous rewards of keeping sheep.

You don’t need acres of land to keep a cow healthy, happy, and productive. You can raise one right in your own backyard, producing more than enough milk for a single family — up to six gallons per day! The Backyard Cow covers everything you need to know, from selecting the right breed to understanding your cow’s behavior. With helpful advice on daily maintenance, milking, and bovine health care, you’ll soon be enjoying the pleasures of fresh milk, yogurt, cheese, and much more.

Raising a pig for meat is easy to do, even in a small space like a suburban backyard. In just five months, a 30-pound shoat will become a 250-pound hog and provide you with more than 100 pounds of pork, including tenderloin, ham, ribs, bacon, sausage, and more. Homegrown Pork covers everything you need to know to raise your own pig, from selecting a breed to feeding, housing, fencing, health care, and humane processing. Invite all your friends over for a healthy and succulent pork dinner!

Hobby farmer Sue Weaver provides a perfect primer in Sheep, ideal for novice or experienced sheep keepers looking to expand their hobby farm with a flock of wooly wonders. Illustrated with instructive and beautiful color photographs and loaded with charts and sidebars, this Hobby Farms title will make even newcomers feel comfortable choosing, caring for, and even sheering and milking their own sheep. Weaver begins, "Be they pets or profit makers, sheep should be part of every small-farm scene. They are inexpensive to buy and keep, easy to care for, and relatively long lived, making them great investments." While sheep dotting a green meadow add beauty-and a possible tax write-off-to any pastoral setting, hobby farmers can choose whether their sheep will be sold as pets, used as providers of milk, cheese, or wool, or raised as livestock for their much sought-after mutton. As a subject, sheep have a fascinating history to tell, as Weaver does in the opening chapter "Sheep from the Beginning," but once we get through the mythology, biology, and anatomical lessons, the farming begins.Sheep will assist the reader in buying the right sheep for his or her farm or land, based on availability, conformation, health, and so forth. The book offers practical advice, including how to move sheep from one locale to another (with a "ewe haul"). Sheep farming involves the housing, feeding, and guarding of the sheep, all detailed in the book. Weave discusses the use of fences, shelters, pens, and stalls as well as the purchase of the right hay. She also addresses the use of working dogs to control and guard the flock. Understanding sheep behavior is the subject of the chapter "Sheepish Behavior and Safe Handling," in which the author discusses flocking dynamics, fleeing instinct, and sheep body and vocal language, leading to practical advice about how to handle and move sheep safely and with minimal fuss. The old adage "A sick sheep is a dead sheep" may not hold completely true in modern times, but it does underscore how important the health of a flock is to a responsible sheep keeper.The chapter "Health, Maladies, and Hooves" (and the appendix "A Glance at Sheep Afflictions") offers farmers vital information about vaccinations, parasites, and hoof care to be proactive in the flock's health. For hobby farmers interested in expanding their flocks, the chapter "The Importance of Proper Breeding" is a mini course in breeding and lambing, including bottle feeding, tail banding, and more. All of the joys of wool are captured in the chapter "Fleece: Shearing, Selling, Spinning," in which the author discusses the tools, skills, and fees required to fleece the flock. The chapter also discusses spinning your own wool and selling the fleece. The final chapter, "Mutton or Milk?" discusses the advantages and desirability of sheep's milk and the possible markets for milk, cheese, and meat. A glossary of over 100 terms, an extensive resources section (sheep-pertinent organizations, websites, and publications), and an index complete the volume.

Eggs, meat, milk, wool, fur, feathers, and some priceless bucolic bliss. No hobby farm is complete without critters...possibly a small herd peppering the field or a microflock flapping around the hen house or pond. A single information-packed volume with everything a hobby farmer needs to know about farm animals, this new comprehensive manual to selecting, caring for, and breeding livestock brings forth the expertise of six hobby farmers, each of whom has real-life on-the-farm experience with the animals she discusses. Whether you're contemplating adding a small herd of sheep or goats to your existing hobby farm or you've always wondered about the benefits of raising angora rabbits or Muscovy ducks, Livestock for Your Hobby Farm provides the kind of guidance you need to begin a herd or flock and expand your pens and fencing. With exhaustive detail, the authors offer complete coverage of chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, cattle, pigs, and rabbits, including the housing, health-care, special needs, advantages and challenges of each.-Extensive sections devoted to the seven major farm animals, including profiles of the most popular breeds and varieties -Detailed how-to chapters on the care, handling, feeding, health, and safety of each animal -Special chapters devoted to the breeding and raising of young animals -Recommendations for ways of capitalizing on your livestock's output, from selling eggs, milk, fiber, and so forth -Tips for troubleshooting potential problems and warding off diseases, parasites, and predators