Your Successful Farm Business: Production, Profit, Pleasure

I'm only a few chapters into it, and I'm please with it, though there are many things that could be said much better, perhaps those are the things the new generation needs to hear in such raw form. People need to start farming, but not blindly, otherwise is like trowing money away, you need some kind of guidance, this book helps the new farmer overcome the biggest obstacles, and those happen to be within the person. The system is also not conditioned to help the small farmer succeed, on the contrary, it's interlaced to make the farmer fail, nonetheless new farmers have a calling and the experiences of the author help not only the new farmer relate, but also feel encourage to pursue his calling.

I am a great fan of Joel Salatin. I read You Can Farm with much joy back in 1999, and later enthusiastically read Everything I want to Do is Illegal. You Can Farm is a great book, probably his best, and Your Successful Farm Business is a self-proclaimed follow-on to that book. It is certainly a good read, certainly worth the purchase price, but not Salatin’s best. Your Successful Farm Business tried to build upon Salatin’s many earlier works without repeating them, and in this regard, it doesn’t really achieve that goal. It does, in fact, recapitulate principles and theorums Salatin has well explained in his other books and in his countless YouTube videos too, and only marginally adds to the body of sustainable, regenerative and profitable farming concepts he advocates, in my opinion. In this, it could have been better, but since it’s a Joel Salatin book, it is still worth reading for the more occasional, but still valuable, nuggets and insights he does manage to bring to the sustainable farming table. However, there is another problem I encountered when reading Your Successful Farm Business that I could not overlook, and that is the atrocious attention to detail in copy editing the book received, or didn’t receive. It is rife with egregious grammar, syntax and style errors that one would more appropriately expect to find marked in red on a high school sophomore’s English paper rather than a professionally written and edited book for the adult world. And these are not the rare typo or misprint, either—such simplistic errors as not knowing the difference between then and than, or affect and effect, constant errors of verb tense, inappropriate and awkward phraseology (speaking of something as more big, rather than bigger), and other fundamental and basic errors present themselves constantly throughout the book, from the very first chapter to the last. Sometimes, the sentences are so awkwardly constructed as to simply be mystifying, leaving the reader with no idea at all what it was that Salatin was trying to say. Salatin has always self-published his books to capture to full retail dollar, and along with this always came a certain unprofessionalism that could be easily overlooked because the content Salatin delivered was so profound and insightful. But this time, the mistakes were so numerous and problematic as to significantly take away from the content. I do not attribute this to Salatin himself, since his facility with words and the English language is well documented. As the former Editor-in-Chief of two large national magazines, I lay this at the foot of the copy editor he hired for the book, Jennifer Dehoff. Buy Your Successful Farm Business—it’s a Joel Salatin book, after all. But if you haven’t read You Can Farm, buy that instead. It is so much better.

Peppy, and a bit tongue in cheek as is Joel’s style, but with plenty of hope, encouragement, and practical advice. I never come away from reading without something to chew on. There are several nuts-and-bolts chapters about infrastructure and money, and several at the 30,000 ft level talking about general principles for running a farm business. Both cautionary tales and things to try. Joel is generous with knowledge. I read this on Kindle Unlimited but I would buy it as a hard copy reference too.

At times, reading this book, I almost gave up my life long dream. But Joel breaks down the ethos and myriad of challenges a regenerative farmer will face with strategic and creative thought, leading you to the glorious light at the end of the tunnel. I now realize what a huge challenge it may be to start farming at 40. I have been warned, but alas, I’m a stubborn old mule and I honestly know my place in this most wondrous creation that blows my mind every single day. The insights provided in this book will start to form your mind into the creative multi disciplinary muscle it needs to be, in order to give it a good go.

Just with the government types would read Joe’s ideas and get rid of archaic zoning laws stopping so much progress!

I loved it. It help me understand how to get started with out a large investmen. And understand how run a business successfully that has a lot of diversity

This book is a MUST READ if you’re even considering farming large or your backyard. Joel is the go to guy for honesty and simplicity. I can’t wait to read his next book.

If you are not familiar with Joel Salatin you need to be. This book (along with several others by Salatin and others) covers many topics related to regenerative farming. It is written in a familiar yet surprisingly intellectual style which makes it both accessible and enlightening.

Si te estás planteando convertirte en granjero, deberías leer este libro. Si ya lo eres, deberías leerlo tambien (yo lo soy) porque te hace reflexionar sobre muchos aspectos y porque te aporta ideas practicas que a muchos agricultores nunca se nos habían pasado por la cabeza. Muy recomendable.

The most enjoyable and informational read I've found in a long time! Also my first Joel Salatin read. I'm one chapter away from finishing it and have loved every page! However this is definitely the sequel to "You Can Farm" not a recap at all! I've just ordered that one and expect it to be just as enjoyable and even more informative.

Want to get into farming? want to turn a profit on that piece of land your' sitting on?Well, Joel has some answers for YOU!Complete info, with how to do it, and how to make it work for you.Plus it's an interesting read.

A really good book that every farmer should read. I was laughing out loud in some places and I really enjoy Salatin’s writing. I wold recommend getting “you can farm”.

Gutes Buch allerdings braucht man auch noch einige andere von Joel Salatin um alle Details zu erhalten. Ist in meinen Augen aber kein Nachteil weil das Thema nicht in ein einziges Buch passt.