Capturing Sunlight, Book 1: Skills & Ideas for Intensive Grazing, Sustainable Pastures, Healthy Soils, & Grassfed Livestock

There are at least a few truly outstanding books on grazing and forage management. None are better than this one. Like one reviewer said, " it was a lucky day for me when I discovered Woody Lane's books". Dr. Lane has that rare knack of being able to explain complex concepts in such a way as to make them simple, even obvious. The information contained in this book is immediately actionable, a fact I really appreciate. The chapters are quite short, 2 or 3 pages, which is nice because the concepts explained are not muddied up with too much other information in a single chapter. This makes the book very easy to read. Frankly, I'm shocked the overall ratings aren't much higher. I own and have read thoroughly essentially all of the well known books on intensive grazing and forage management and not one is better than this. Honestly, most aren't as good. Jim Gerrish's books and Sarah Flack's book are both examples of the best books in this field and I highly recommend them. Also Dale Strickler's books. These folks have truly "been there and done that" with the dirt under their fingernails to prove it. I say "very well done Dr. Lane, highly commendable". In a word "practical".

I feel like a lot of books nowadays has some political agenda attached to them. This book was all informative, and it had a little humor mixed in. One of the best books I've read about the topic so far

the book is well written, good info, glad I bought it. The binding, however, is very poor. Pages break loose from just turning them, and fall out on the table.

If you are a livestock producer with grazing animals, buy this book. If you are a college student interested in practical applications of forage concepts, buy this book. If you are a county agent who needs a nice pasture management reference, buy this book. I’m a forage specialist at Clemson University and have worked with producers and county agents for the past 20 years. I also graze a small flock of sheep on an even smaller farm here in South Carolina. I spent some quality COVID-19 quarantine time on our back porch reading through this book. It is organized and written in a similar manner as Jim Gerrish’s books with short, informative and practical chapters written to address specific problems or to explain observations that Dr. Lane has made on livestock operations. These topics or “chapters” are organized into thematic sections so that the reader can read one or several topics in areas including grazing techniques, soils and fertilization, forage growth, forage quality and even a section addressing the science and business interface of grazing. My favorite topic (by far) was a thought provoking one summarizing a Cornell lecture delivered by Dr. Van Soest on the intake and digestion of fiber by the largest dinosaurs. It was a great chapter to read and allow the mind to wander over a cold beer. The last section is a self described textbook which covers intensively managed grazing systems. This 25+ page section alone justifies the book’s purchase price and gives a fantastic introduction to managed grazing even covering the grazing wedge. The book is fully indexed and even has an appendix. Pick up a copy of this book. It’s producer friendly and can be used to read about an individual topic when there are only a few free minutes in the evening or over longer periods of time (like in a quarantine situation!). I’ve got a feeling I’ll read that dinosaur chapter a few more times in the coming weeks to think more about tree ferns and fermentation in cold blooded animals.

“It was a lucky day for me when I found Woody Lane’s books. His latest, Capturing Sunlight – Skills & Ideas for Intensive Grazing, Sustainable Pastures, Healthy Soils, & Grassfed Livestock – is a collection of instructive, practical, humorous and actionable essays on grazing principles that I recommend to any livestock producer wanting to “up their game” and become more profitable. If you’re tired of your eyes glazing over at one more seminar presenter’s PowerPoint, pick up Woody’s book – you won’t fall asleep, you’ll learn something, and you’ll enjoy it. And your pastures and livestock will thank you for it.”

Dr. Lane's book, "Capturing Sunlight," is a great collection of practical and insightful recommendations on the nature of grazing management and forage crop production. If you will pardon the pun, I found it highly digestible, too. By that I mean, this book is one that the reader can pick their way through at their leisure, even jumping around as they might like. The book is largely a collection of short essays (almost all of which is a compendium of writings he has published in magazines and "The Shepherd" magazine) that is organized by topic and theme. Moreover, Woody describes the topics and background with common language, helping to explain any jargon of the discipline as he goes. So often, I found that Dr. Lane had written about a subject in much the same way and with the same progression as I would have written it. For me, it had great flow and logic, which made it an even easier read. Additionally, Woody brings a wit and flare of phrase that spice up the subject. I pictured him writing with a wry smile as he crafted some of his phrasing. I highly enjoyed this book and highly recommend to all who seek to better understand forage and pasture management.