Farming books for primary school library

Farmer Boy - Laura Ingalls Wilder
A semi-fictional account of her husband's life as a child (9yrs old) on a big farm in upstate NY: merino shearing, potato digging to save the crop and more.
I find Morpurgo books are emotionally wrenching, tragic - rather like The Red Pony - so depressing
Herriot books are a good shout - I read those when I was about 9yrs and loved them; totally put me off vet school though ...
Marguerite Henry books - fictionalised books about famous horses and types of horse.
King of the Wind - the Godolphin Arabian from which nearly all modern flat racing thoroughbreds are descended, including Man O War and Seabiscuit
White Stallion of Lipizza - about the Lipizzaner stallions in Vienna

The Dick Francis library is probably a little too old for them: fag smoking, champagne drinking, steeplechase jockey solves mysteries ...

We’re farmers and my boy (5) has a good book called look inside a farm (believe it is usborne?) and that seems pretty good. So often you can tell the author actually has no idea about farming and that’s so off putting for children who DO know all about farming! He also has a book called ‘Total Tractor’ which is packed full of trivia and facts.

That was from a Gervase Phinn memoir.

Dorling Kindersley published a book called Total Tractor that might go down well!

Sorry, I see I need to work on my reading comprehension - you were asking for non fiction!

There's also a lovely treasury of the James Herriot stories adapted for children. It's more a book to be shared by a teacher reading aloud though.

Oh, it's by Michael Morpurgo, but one of his lesser known ones.

Long Way Home is a good one for children 9+. It's about a boy who has a summer foster placement on a farm and builds a connection with the family through enjoying farm life. It's not really heavily focussed on farming, there's a bit of calf wrangling and straw bale heaving, that's about it, but the main character is a boy which might be more appealing to your young male readers.

I work in a school that sounds very similar to yours @babybythesea.

There are a few Michael Morpurgo books that have gone down well, especially ‘Out of the Ashes’ which is about the foot and mouth epidemic. It was amazing to see all my farm obsessed boys recommending it to each other (and me).

We live on a farm and DS is year 5. He likes books about different breeds so different breeds of chickens, ducks etc
There’s lots of small holding books on how to keep various animals Katie Thear wrote a lot.
The pest control book from the golden cockerel series is a favourite in this house.
The photo books full of old photos of farming in the local area lead to the discussions about how things have changed and the good fun of trying to identify whose house/farm/shop it now is

Amanda Owen (The Yorkshire Shepherdess) has written a couple of books of farming stories for children. Might be worth a look?

They seem better at this in America or Canada:
Anne of Green Gables
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
The Wizard of Oz
The Red Pony

Also: The Sheep Pig and other Dick King Smith books. Earlier Roald Dahl books like George's Marvellous Medicine, Danny Champion of the World (not set on a farm but a very real rural world, loved this), Magic Finger, Fantastic Mr Fox are all rural.

I grew up on a farm and loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books at that age. The book about her husband, Farmer's Boy, was loved by my farming nephews when they were little.

Kathleen Fidler's books might be interesting, they are based on Scottish history but are about rural farming families.

Farm Boy by Michael Murpurgo might go down well if you haven't already got it. Enid Blyton set a couple of series on Farms - the Six Cousins and the Cherry Tree Farm books. My childhood was exactly like these books.

Or how about for non-fiction, The Victorian Farm (or Edwardian Farm), books based on the BBC television series, so lots of photos, illustrations etc as well as writing. An interesting comparison between their life and farming in the past.

Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck?

For younger Children the Floss books about a sheepdog think Kim Lewis she has written other books set in the countryside.

Some of the Punchbowl Farm books? Discussions and a bit of angst between the siblings over farming methods. Set in the 40's maybe earlier. Loved these books

Kaleb farmyard tales popular in our school.

Sorry I didn't read your OP thoroughly enough with the request about non fiction. I agree with the magazines and Haynes manuals ideas. You could get a subscription to a weekly farming newspaper that has the mart reports and articles about grassland management and suchlike. Get MartEye on the library computer (livestreaming the auction ring at livestock marts ..so addictive).

My Friend Flicka is a "pony book" but the main characters live on an isolated ranch and work hard and there's plenty about farm life. The lead character is a boy too.

Maybe some of the James Herriot books?

I also went to a rural primary school and a lot of us were farm children but the only book I remember in the school library being anything to do with farming was Temba Dawn.

Oh, and I meant to say, but forgot - I absolutely love that you're taking this seriously and taking the time to find books that work for your kids.

Possibly a silly suggestion, but maybe How It Works type books about farm equipment? Old Haynes manuals for tractors? Is there a local facebook group (or local parish newsletter, or thw school newsletter, or anything like that) where you could ask people to donate any unwanted manuals etc?