Start Here Reading List · 1st Gen Farmer

Start Here Reading List

You Can Farm: the Entrepreneur's Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farming Enterprise by Joel Salatin

437 pages
The book you NEED to start with, because it explains the path to get to the career field of farming from the outside. Every other book will assume you are already in it
Joel is an excellent communicator, and easy to read. You will not get caught up in too much mulling over the meaning of his sentences like other authors in this space.
This book is even more relevant today than when it was written. I am an example of the premise of the book being true.
Need a Mentor to "Translate Farmer to Civilian" Score: 4/10

2. Fields of Farmers: Interning, Mentoring, Partnering, Germinating by Joel Salatin

308 pages
No I am not a Joel Salatin stan. But he pushes concepts to the noob the best, and you should understand apprenticeships before moving any further forward.
Again easy to understand writing style. The concepts of this book are made infinitely easier with the internet to find apprentice/ master relationships.
This community you are in was designed with the idea to get someone who is interested in farming to their first master.
Need a Mentor to "Translate Farmer to Civilian" Score: 2/10

3. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry

234 pages
This book largely has you escape the tactics of the past two books and look at the forest through the trees. Understanding the concepts in this book will result in paradigm crushing weights put on your back about the state of Ag in America.
The best way to describe Wendell is a philosopher. So you will not be able to cruise through this book quite like Joel's books
The "people and politics" in the book may seem outdated, but they reign even more true today. It takes time to prove cultural ideas, and unfortunately Mr. Berry's theories have all been shown to be accurate after 5 decades.
Nick Offerman (the actor who masterfully plays Ron Swanson on Parks and Rec) was apparently friends with Wendell and performs the audiobook. I would highly suggest getting that while reading through your hard copy.
Need a Mentor to "Translate Farmer to Civilian" Score: 5/10

4. Holistic Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore our Environment by Allan Savory

504 pages
This is the most difficult book I have ever read. It is written well, that's not the problem. If you grew up a normie like I did, in the suburbs going to public school, you will have to rewire your brain to wrap your head around this. Paradigm change after paradigm change after paradigm change. You WILL see the matrix after this book.
This presents the 1st order principles that you should make the rest of your decisions off of.
Need a Mentor to "Translate Farmer to Civilian" Score: 10/10

--- This is the book I use to compare all other books to be a 10/10

5. Management-intensive Grazing MiG: The Grassroots of Grass Farming by Jim Gerrish

304 pages
Jim is the coolest man I have ever met in my life, he is on my Mt Rushmore of heroes.
This is the most tactical book of actually doing the job of grazing on this list.
There are a lot of "brands" of grazing you can find out there. They are all named something different to try to sell you a system. They are all just nuances built on top of MiG.
Need a Mentor to "Translate Farmer to Civilian" Score: 8/10

6. Bonus Book: Land, Livestock & Life: A Grazier's Guide to Finance by Allan Nation

Hard to justify this in a list of top 5 books I would recommend to a noob in their 20s looking to break into the greatest career field.
However, this explains the wealth aspect- the investing aspect of this job.
Introduces the *wink wink* of holy crap I am not going to be poor forever pursuing this.

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Start Here Reading List

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Successful Office Job? Miserable?? Rip the band-aid now and start to farm while you're young. Or wait till you're divorced, old and fat.