Ask Umbra on mowing with goats 8

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1. 

   PermieWriter Posted 9:07 am
   20 May 2009

   We kept both sheep and goats for lawn mowing when we lived in a rural area, and ruminants have great advantages over lawn mowers (particularly high weed mowers). But the experience led my husband to make a firm rule: Never keep livestock that, in a pinch, you can't wrestle to the ground. This after a frisky sheep dragged him across the yard.Goats have the advantage of eating almost anything (including your shirt if you get too near). They're very playful, but their idea of play tends to be what humans view as getting butted really hard. When they eat down a weed-infested area, they tend to leave it very uneven, and will girdle any trees they have consistent access to.Sheep are much more difficult to lead around than goats (an area without sheep in it is the most terrifying thing ever to a sheep). They are exceedingly stupid. But they crop an area down flat. If you want an England-quality lawn, and have enough pasturage to make it work, you want sheep.Miniature goats and sheep, though they are easier to handle than the standard varieties, take forever to mow even a small area. But if you have children, they'll adore them. Miniature angora goats are pretty much the cutest thing ever, particularly when they're kids.

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2. 

   TrashTsar Posted 4:22 pm
   20 May 2009

   We use "rented" sheep and goats to graze our 93-acre closed landfill. As the site is just a few miles from Google, we may use the very same animals, in fact.
   Why do we use livestock instead of mechanical mowers and why don't we just get rid of the grass?Answering the second question first, the grass is required as part of our landfill closure plan. Without it, the topsoil cover would erode during the winter rains here in California. Erosion would allow damage to the engineered clay cap that seals the top of the landfill and keeps the garbage and methane from escaping.During the rains, the grass grows waist high, then it drys out around May, posing a real fire hazard to us and to our industrial neighbors. Of the grass removal methods we have available, mowers cause fires--goats do not. When we used tractor mowers, they twice started grass fires, and one of the fires spread to 10 acres before the fire department put it out.Also, as Umbra pointed out, goats help to eradicate weeds. We have seen a sharp reduction in the amount of noxious yellow star thistle since we started using goats. The fertilizer they leave behind is a plus.Finally, buried all over in the top foot or two of the landfill cover is a lot of plastic pipe (under vacuum) that collects the landfill gas and moves it to the big engine-generators where it is burned to make electricity. When we used tractors, their weight did a lot of serious, but hidden damage to those pipes, which posed real problems for the engine-generators. The last time we hired tractor mowers to cut the grass, the cost of the gas system damage was more than the dollar value of the contract, and we were chasing vacuum leaks for months.And of course, the goats and sheep are far more pleasing than tractors. Our landfill gets a lot of recreational foot traffic and the walkers really like having the critters around.

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3. 

   jillbilly Posted 9:22 am
   21 May 2009

   Here in Chicago, a pilot program was started at the Paxton Landfill with just a handfull of goats, leased for the summer from an adventurous farmer south of the city. The goats were "trained" to eat specific plants by spraying the targeted species with garlic, especially the non-native and invasive Phragmites that threatens the wetlands which (unfortunately) surround our existing landfills. Chicago produces a lot of trash, and some of these landfills are capped at 100 feet or more in height - far too steep for conventional tractor mowers to maintain (with the same destructive problems that TrashTsar mentioned above), but no problem for a goat. That first season, the goats performed remarkably well, but were often attacked by wild dogs. Solution: two Great Pyranese shepherd dogs, who love nothing more than guarding their herd. Now the goats are so successful their use on other capped landfills is being seriously discussed. The lady that cares for the Paxton goats, however, faces another, unforseen problem: she takes the goats home for the winter, and the little herd of goats now numbers over 20! Apparently all that good forage and fresh air makes them prolific as well. PS - The winter barn manure gets composted and made available to organic gardeners, a true win-win situation.

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4. 

   Clifford Wells Posted 6:24 pm
   24 May 2009

   I hate freakin' goats.  I suppose I've been butted one too many time.  I tried to eat goat one time and it was digusting.  Good for a ranch or a landfill ... bad around any house or community.  They ate our garden and then one day I left my windows down and they were eating my truck!  Headliner, plastic, seats, everything, and left some nice poo behind as a calling card.  There were ten inside the truck and ten "helpers" on top of it, stomping nice dings everywhere.  Ooh, I do not like goats, goat milk, or what the goats do.  The billy goats pee themselves so prove they're the most macho.  They are expert fence jumpers and thieves.  About their only redeeming quality is that sometimes they'll kill a snake.  Gimme a break, even my Jack Russel dog can kill a snake.  My name is Sam and I do not like green ham or ... goats.

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5. 

   splashy Posted 2:29 pm
   25 May 2009

   Goats can be a pain in the rear, as they are real Houdinis when it comes to breaking out and they like trashing things as they will eat all kinds of things and tear them up. The billys also smell very bad. They are horrible.That being said, mowers are loud, also smell bad, and don't leave fertilizer behind. Not only that, but you have to ride them over and over again, while the goats can pretty much do it on their own.If you have very good fencing and some way to keep an eye on them, goats are the better choice IMHO.

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6. 

   leonsquotes Posted 7:28 pm
   26 May 2009

   Being from the country I must tell you that it is true that goats have been used as lawn mowers, as well and cows and sheep. I must warn you that goat will also eat your rose bushes and your shoes! I have also known some picky critters who would only eat the new green grass and would not eat the drier long grass. Hope it works for you. There is nothing cuter than baby goats. Watch for what we call land mines though.Free Auto Insurance Quotes

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7. 

   AnpoWi Posted 9:50 pm
   27 May 2009

   Goats are friendly and their waste makes good fertilizer.  They are perfect for clearing scrub.  However, they will also girdle your trees and they are fantastic escape artists.  You have to LIKE goats to keep goats.  Our City uses them very successfully to mow rough terrain.Sheep are easier to keep than goats but require more protection from predators.  Their manure is similar to goat manure.  They will eat many of the same things as goasts but are less destructive.  If they are a woolly breed, they will require shearing.  Hair breeds do not require shearing.  A friend keeps a herd of sheep to reduce brush around his home and therefore reduce the danger from fires.  I kept a sheep for one season until the grass ran out, fed her grain for a month, and sent her to the butcher.  DELICIOUS.I now have miniature horses.  They also do a fine job of grazing, although their waste needs to be picked up.  Horse manure is the finest-smelling manure on the planet and will make your garden very happy.  They do require more care and money than goats or sheep, and they must not be exposed to too much lush growth at one time unless you want an expensive bill from the vet to treat colic or founder.  We keep them in a pen and let them out to mow as needed.  

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8. 

   danibarra Posted 8:52 pm
   31 May 2009

   Sorry, getting on this train LATE in it's travels. I think the really interesting thing that nobody has brought up is the whole history here. The reason that we have lawns in the first place is because the upper-class had livestock. In the late 19th century it was considered a sign of great wealth to have a huge well-groomed lawn. Not because people thought lawns looked good but because it meant that you were rich enough to have the necessary livestock to keep the huge front lawn looking the way it did. People started seeding their gardens and keeping it trimmed to emulate this affluence and make people think they were rich too. That style + industrial revolution = lawnmower. The rest we know. It's so crazy that it's come full circle and we are now talking about goats being good for the thing they really actually invented lawns for in the first place. Let's look beyond these last 100+ years and the industrial revolution and realize that we still own our land and we can do with it whatever we want. It doesn't have to just be lawn anymore!

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