Free-range landscaping with goats
Exploring a new trend in green agri-business: using goats to clear land and trim weeds.
By Sean Deskin, Local Correspondent
SR. CABRO, THE GOATKEEPER: Pen, ink, pastels, colored pencils. (Photo: Sean Deskin)
Seeking help from the animal kingdom for emissions-free landscaping is a growing trend in agricultural business, according to The Wall Street Journal. Homeowners, businesses and parks departments across the nation are employing goats for land clearing and removing brush and weeds.
The use of herbivores (sheep and cows can be called on, too) for landscape management is a technique that predates the gas-powered-lawn equipment era and is an approach that has changed little for many years in some places.
Farmers in India, for example, often employ goatherds and their charge to clear the fields after harvest. Their manure is a natural fertilizer and by the time the annual monsoon season is over, the fields are once again ready for planting.
To start a goat-powered lawn service, the first thing you need is the vision, and the goats.
There are many benefits of this approach to landscaping within suburban and urban areas.
Goats can be trained to focus on specific types of weeds and can easily clear steep slopes where heavy equipment can't reach and nuzzle into tight spots where gas-powered weed eaters can't squeeze, like corners and around tree roots.
Also, most people prefer the sounds of goat baying and munching to the wasp nest-in-a-tin-can sound of a fleet gas operated lawn tools.
To top it off, these services provide on-site composting and fertilizing. Ah, just smell the roses.
Source:
Goatscaping: Free-range landscaping with goats | MNN - Mother Nature Network
http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/texas/local-blog/goatscaping-free-range-landscaping-with-goats
Exploring a new trend in green agri-business: using goats to clear land and trim weeds.
By Sean Deskin, Local Correspondent
SR. CABRO, THE GOATKEEPER: Pen, ink, pastels, colored pencils. (Photo: Sean Deskin)
Seeking help from the animal kingdom for emissions-free landscaping is a growing trend in agricultural business, according to The Wall Street Journal. Homeowners, businesses and parks departments across the nation are employing goats for land clearing and removing brush and weeds.
The use of herbivores (sheep and cows can be called on, too) for landscape management is a technique that predates the gas-powered-lawn equipment era and is an approach that has changed little for many years in some places.
Farmers in India, for example, often employ goatherds and their charge to clear the fields after harvest. Their manure is a natural fertilizer and by the time the annual monsoon season is over, the fields are once again ready for planting.
To start a goat-powered lawn service, the first thing you need is the vision, and the goats.
There are many benefits of this approach to landscaping within suburban and urban areas.
Goats can be trained to focus on specific types of weeds and can easily clear steep slopes where heavy equipment can't reach and nuzzle into tight spots where gas-powered weed eaters can't squeeze, like corners and around tree roots.
Also, most people prefer the sounds of goat baying and munching to the wasp nest-in-a-tin-can sound of a fleet gas operated lawn tools.
To top it off, these services provide on-site composting and fertilizing. Ah, just smell the roses.
Source:
Goatscaping: Free-range landscaping with goats | MNN - Mother Nature Network
http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/texas/local-blog/goatscaping-free-range-landscaping-with-goats
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