The book is a product of The Livestock Conservancy, a non-profit organization focused on preserving and promoting rare breeds of livestock. The authors explain that heritage breeds were developed thousands of years to fit with local environments, farming methods and purposes and provide interesting choices for today's small scale sustainable farms. This eloquent, inviting, visual guide explains why conserving heritage breeds is important and shows how one can raise such breeds him or herself, and by this helping to preserve them and benefiting from them at the same time. Written by three experts from the Livestock Conservancy, this book includes chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys and horses, detailing each breed's specific characteristics. In one chapter the specific needs of each species, in order of size from smallest to largest, are discussed showing that about anyone can manage the smallest species while as size increases, so does the complexity of managing and housing animals. The reader is guided from the selection of the right species, to the selection of breed and even to exit strategies to avoid that a breed undergoes huge losses when producers buy up uniquely breed animals and then hastily disperse them after a few year of involvement. The book represents a guide for a new generation of farmers.