States unleash goats to keep grass trimmed (to reduce carbon footprint/protect environment/save $)

[usregimechange]

(CNN) -- Forget lawn mowers. Maryland officials have found a natural way to combat brush while protecting a threatened species.

Forty bearded goats have been dispatched by the State Highway Administration to control plant growth in the area. They have been munching in an enclosed area for a week; they will stay until September, but will be put back to work next spring.

The project is part of Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's "Smart, Green and Growing" legislative package, aimed at reducing the state's greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020.

The pilot program will be evaluated at the end of two years, and officials will determine whether to send goats to other grazing projects on state highways, according to David Buck, a spokesman for the highway administration.

The goats are reducing the state's carbon footprint and protecting the area's bog turtles, listed as threatened. In addition, he said, the animals are much cheaper than a mowing program: State costs are about $10,000 for two years, most of that for delivery and veterinary services.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/27/maryland.highway.goats/index.html#cnnSTCText?iref=werecommend


Why not?

[Taverner]

1. AWESOME! Goat Power!

I've always loved goats

[usregimechange]

2. baaaaa

[NightWatcher]

3. the more we go forward, the more we look backwards

[bbinacan]

4. What about goat farts?

:evilgrin:

[varelse]

5. Good news

it's refreshing to see states take a cheap, low-impact, and humane approach to clearing brush. I hear goats will eat poison oak, too :)

[usregimechange]

6. They will eat anything, literally.

[CoffeeCat]

13. I learned that the hard way...

When my kids were 2 and 3, we went to a petting zoo that was full of goats.

My two kids were each munching on granola bars and I had a five dollar bill in my hand--because
I was going to buy some goat food to feed them.

When we came in to the petting zoo area, it was go time for the goats. They grabbed the granola
bars out of my kids hands and ate them, and one also ate the five-dollar bill in my hand!

My kids thought it was funny...

[surrealAmerican]

18. It's confusing to call your children "kids" ...

... on a thread about goats.

[jody]

7. Don't know, D.C. is full of jackasses and all they eat is green backs. n/t

[gmoney]

8. They do this in Switzerland

Well, they have herds of sheep that they graze in various public areas to keep things in check, but same basic concept.

[OKNancy]

9. I LOVE GOATS

LOL

.

[timeforpeace]

15. With mint jelly?

[OKNancy]

19. LOL

no my little side business... I make goat's milk soap.. ( Capricornus, the astronomical sign of the goat..etc)

.

[TahitiNut]

25. Chevre!

Yum!

[Cleita]

10. Around here people rent goats for the same reason.

Some of our ranchers keep goats to make their boutique cheeses that are sold in wine and gourmet shops in the wine country here. As a side line they rent out their goats to ranchers where the terrain is too rugged to run a tractor/mower over.

[CoffeeCat]

11. I want one for my yard!

I'd give up our lawn mower in a second!

:)

[usregimechange]

12. We work cheeeeeaaaap.

[timeforpeace]

14. Now that's inspired leadership.

[angstlessk]

16. I hate being a cynic..which is being a cynical cynic, I supose..but were it not for the $

the rest (footprint/environment) would be a moot point and no goats would be seen!

[rosesaylavee]

20. Not cynical, just observant.

Green ideas will have to make economic sense or most people will not support them.

[Autumn]

17. My pygmy goats do

a darn good job. However I have had to put chicken wire over some of my plants.

[kestrel91316]

21. Anybody who DOESN'T do this where feasible is practically

an enemy of the state, lol. This is such a simple and elegant and nontoxic solution. Everybody wins - I see NO losers.

[robdogbucky]

22. Goats have been used here

in the Bay Area to keep the hills around the area of the Oakland fire and the Caldecott Tunnel free of unnecessary grassy fuels for at least the last 15 years or so.

Goat Power
The Ups and Downs of Using Goats to Control Fires

By Dawn Starin


"Grazing goats can help prevent catastrophic fires, but they can also wreak environmental havoc if not properly managed.

The Oakland and Berkeley hills in California are particularly ripe for fires. The combined effects of droughts and a bark beetle infestation have killed off thousands of acres of trees. Add steep slopes, high winds and thousands of homes, and an unchecked fire can wreak havoc. Many residents remember the sweeping fires of 1991, when in one afternoon 3,500 homes burned and 25 people died. Thus, residents and public agencies—and even the San Francisco International Airport and University of California, Berkeley—have called in the local forest fire prevention squad: a team of sure-footed goats.

The goats are overseen by shepherds on horseback and border collies, and they graze along the hillsides eating unwanted grass and weeds, more cost-efficient and less intrusive than pesticides and mechanical equipment. Places considered impossible to reach by human or mechanical hands are completely cleared, rendering them fireproof. And local residents are treated to bucolic scenes of antic-prone shaggy angoras, squat pygmies, tiny-eared la manchas and stringy alpines grazing, climbing trees and butting one another..."

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4663

[jazzjunkysue]

23. Breaking: Maryland FDA Recalls All Local Produce: Cites E Colli Contamination.

Let's think ahead on this, people. What, exactly, does goat shit smell like?

[NV Whino]

24. weeds

[Autumn]

29. Like rabbit shit

I clean out the goat pen and it goes into the compost pile.

[anigbrowl]

30. hint: wash your veggies.

[Autumn]

31. Only a fool doesn't wash

their veggies.

[reggie the dog]

26. my friend does this

on his estate, instead of mowing the lawn he bought 2 goats.

[Politicalboi]

27. We could use them here in Ca

Plenty of dried grass around to eat.

[SoCalDem]

28. When we first moved here, people hired sheep & goats to keep the open areas trimmed

My boys were little, and we would alwayss have to pull off the road, so they could watch them:)..fond memories:)

[ConcernedCanuk]

32. Makes one wonder about walking around barefoot . . .

.
.
.

:silly:

[pleah]

33. Goat cheese is the best! Feed'em,

milk'em, make cheese! Win, win, win situation! :woohoo:

[HamdenRice]

34. I for one think this is a terrible idea

They should use sheep, not goats, if, as the OP says, it is to control "grass."

Goats prefer "browse" over "grass" -- the rougher stuff, like weeds, tree bark, and bush.

Goats are "browsers" not "grazers."

If they want to control "grass" they need sheep.

So, to the idea of using goats to control grass, I say, "baaaahhhh humbug."

OTOH, maybe the head line is wrong, because it looks like they are actually buying goats to control bush, not grass.

[bertman]

35. Goats are much cheaper than humans with slingblades. They don't unionize, file suit

if they're harassed by their boss, or call in sick. They require no benefits such as vacation, 401k's, medical insurance.

Yeah, goats are a great idea. But I'll bet the guys who used to drive the tractors and operate the weed-eaters would rather have a job than an unemployment check.

[lunatica]

36. So instead of buying tractors, buy goats. Even half a dozen will get you work

Compare the cost of gas and maintenance, the seasonality of clearing brush and the convenience of being able to do it on a steep grade where a tractor isn't feasible.

No. I'm sure you'd rather complain and feel like a victim.

[bertman]

37. Now I see why you use the moniker, lunatica. Go back and read my post again.

This is the state of Maryland we're talking about. They have a huge highway department that hires thousands of workers to clear brush and keep the roadsides from being overgrown.

Instead of hiring goats to do a job that humans could do with NON-gasoline engine equipment--slingblades and machetes--they could be hiring many of the unemployed Marylanders who are drawing unemployment. Or, at a minimum, not laying off workers like many states are doing.

Doing manual labor in the hot sun is not the most fun job in the world, but it's a job that pays the bills and puts food on the table.

[lunatica]

38. Thanks for the compliment. I like my moniker too

You're the one who's in a rage though. There's no need for goats for every job. But it helps on steep hillsides and in larger areas away from the side of the highways and roads. Or do you think the unemployed should be used to clear brush in all the fire prone areas such as the woods. I'm sure Maryland has some uninhabited areas in the countryside.

[bertman]

40. Yes, I think the unemployed should be hired by the state as employees of the state

with benefits, to do the brush clearing. Brush clearing has been done by human beings for centuries--and done quite well. As a matter of fact, I have done quite a bit of it myself, but mostly in my younger days.

My problem with this goat situation is not the goats. They're great animals and I know people who use them precisely for what Maryland is using them; however, I'd rather see our states focus on low-tech, non-carbon emitting methods utilized by humans for doing everything practical. Those methods will be labor intensive, but that means more people get productive work and contribute to the tax base, while reducing our carbon footprint. Jobs, benefits, and sustainable methods.

[LWolf]

39. I'd hire some,

if I could:

1. Find a way to keep them off the trees and shrubs, especially the young trees. I planted 50 ponderosa seedlings this weekend.

2. Afford to pay for their hire.


I have 6 very rocky acres of weeds that my 3 horses and 1 sheep won't touch: mustard weed, mallow, and, worst of all, perennial pepper weed. Too rocky for mowing or even dragging; I broke the harrow a couple of weeks ago. I don't do Monsanto products. Goats sound like the ticket, if I can just figure out how to keep them off the things I WANT.

[csziggy]

41. Electric fence, if you can drive metal posts into the ground

Or you can get the 'tripod' posts designed to move around and shift the areas they are grazing.

When we first bought our farm, it was way overgrown, so much we couldn't tell what to clear and what to leave. I bought a small herd of goats and turned them loose on the upper 30 acres. By the end of the first summer, they had cleared all the years old corn, the underbrush so we could see what we had in the thickets, and even eaten the Spanish bayonet down to the roots.

I traded the goats off for a steer when we started putting in pastures - they wanted to pull up the grass sprigs that I had paid so much for.

Sheep are better if you just want to maintain a lawn but goats are better if you want to clear everything edible. In the long run goats are harder on land since they will eat everything.

[LWolf]

42. I have some electric fence up.

I had a small herd of sheep, to begin with. They didn't like the weeds; preferred rose bushes, lilacs, and trees. They easily jumped the electric fence, and I didn't have the resources to create that much more TALL fence. So I got rid of the sheep (except for one ewe that no one wanted; she now thinks she's a horse.)

I've got about 2000 feet of perimeter fence, which is were most of the trees are planted. I'd need enough tall, heavy tposts for another 2000 feet to run an "inside" fence, which is more efficient than trying to fence around each individual tree.

[csziggy]

43. Yeah, keepin the goats off stuff you want to keep is the hard part

That is why we got rid of our goats - we were planting trees, grass, landscaping, etc. We did interior cross fencing but the goats got to be too much trouble. Plus a friend's dad wanted them so we made the trade.

Rather than fence the whole area, you could run temporary electric and move it from area to area - or if there is just the one rocky area you want to clear, just fence that off.

[LWolf]

44. All good thoughts to consider.

The whole place is rocky in the extreme; truly a "rock farm." It's in a volcanic area; there are protruding rocks everywhere, you can't dig more than a couple of inches without hitting more BIG rocks, and about 18 inches down, it's a sheet of broken rock that I can't get through with a small backhoe or an auger.

But tree roots can. Amazing things, trees. ;)