
One-cow Revolution
Achieving Food Independence With a Grass-fed Family Cow
Rizzoli · Print & ebook · November 18, 2025
Essential experience-based advice and instructions from the authors of The Independent Farmstead for raising a grass-fed milk cow as the heart of a successful low-input, low-cost homestead.
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- Who it’s for
- Practical guidance follows a grass-fed dairy cow from arrival through daily care and farmstead uses.
- Themes
- Homestead dairy-cow care, Food independence, Sustainable small-scale farming
- Genres
- Animal Husbandry, Sustainable Living, Sustainable Agriculture
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For younger readers: Milly Cow Gives Milk, Farming Is Female, Moo
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Essential experience-based advice and instructions from the authors of The Independent Farmstead for raising a grass-fed milk cow as the heart of a successful low-input, low-cost homestead. For more than three decades, Shawn and Beth Dougherty have honed their frugal methods for managing a small-scale farmstead on marginal land.
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In One-Cow Revolution, they share their wisdom and affection for the blessing that is the human-dairy cow partnership, addressing key questions with clear answers for those who have just moved back to the land (or are still planning and dreaming). The Doughertys begin at the beginning, advising readers on how to find a reliable dairy cow, move her to the homestead, and settle her in. They take readers on the round of daily chores, including managing their cow’s grazing patterns and monitoring pasture health, milking a cow, and handling the milk. They explain how a solar-powered cow becomes the heart of a diversified farmstead, providing food for calves, pigs, and other livestock; milk and meat for the family; and manure for high-quality compost to build healthy garden soil. The book’s exemplary how-to content is framed by an introduction and conclusion that describes their life philosophy as “cow people” and the many benefits that manifest in communities where small, food-independent farmsteads thrive as models of sustainable human land-use. "This is the homestead dairy cow book every homesteader needs!”—Amy Fewell, founder, Homesteaders of America
The Homestead Dairy Cow
Practical guidance follows a grass-fed dairy cow from arrival through daily care and farmstead uses.
Come here for
- Finding, moving, and settling in a dairy cow
- Milking, milk handling, and managing grazing patterns
Expect
- Advice on pasture health and daily chores
- How milk, meat, and manure support a diversified farmstead
Where it sits
| Animal Husbandry | 82% |
|---|---|
| Sustainable Agriculture | 48% |
| Sustainable Living | 45% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Sustainable Living
- Animal Husbandry
- Sustainable Agriculture
- Authors
- Beth Dougherty, Shawn Dougherty
- Publisher
- Rizzoli
- Published
- November 18, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Homestead dairy-cow care · Food independence · Sustainable small-scale farming
- Reading lane
- Sustainable Living