OT-I need to change jobs

Read this on the internet. At what they get paid for "mowing" with goats, maybe I need to change jobs.

"In Southern California, where wildfires are a constant threat, municipal governments have increasingly moved to hiring goats rather than relying on weed whackers to clear dry land, saying it saves money and is better for the environment.

“This comes natural to them; they know it and love it,” said Johnny Gonzales, the herd manager for Environmental Land Management, the company hired to deploy the goats. “We are just using what nature gave them.”

Environmental Land Management charges an average of $1,250 an acre for its goat service."

And this is what they call saving money.
Imagine the previous plan.

yes goats will certainly clear it,lady here has been renting out her goat herd for years to clear brush,makes a good living at it and she doesnt do anything except haul goats to another pasture..but,I'm not sure why those folks would want to,they clear the brush ,and then video the mudslides!

:lol: :lol: I was thinking the same thing. How can someone say that spending $1250 per acre is "saving money"? Only in SoCal.

There might actually be a method to the madness... I've heard of them using sheep to clean up power line rights of way. The reason being... the green weenies don't want it sprayed and a lot of the ground is too rough to effectively mow with heavy equipment... so they hire in a flock of sheep.

Rod

I see the point on clearing & then videoing the mud slides, but as for $1250/acre, that does not surprise me....it take a MUCH better fence to contain goats than for cattle or horses, so they probably have to be attended for the duration of the "mowing/clearing" period.

Just wondering here...
Couldn't a sheep or goat be trained to use one of those invisible fence type collars like dogs use?
Would sure save some money for fencing or herding if they could.

A lot of it is in very tough terrain - perfect for goats. They put 200 goats on a acre on these hillsides, leave them there for 24 hours, then move them. The goats graze everything down to the ground, on very steep, rocky hillsides. Previously much of this was done by hand.

ive not noticed this lady here doing anything to the fences,she simply turns them loose,has several old nannys she puts bells on that will come to her when she hollers,and the other ones follow them around .when she goes to load them she uses one of those portable corrals,calls up her nannys pushes them into a trailer and moves on,if the next place is close she simply leads them down the road.I havent talked to her in a while,but she used to charge by the acre you could say,she would go out and look at a place,decide how many goats she needed to put there for how long,and they would clean a place up in no time. she had a standing order for goats at the smaller sale barns around that she would pay x dollars for whatever goat.the last time i talked to her,she said she didnt know exactly how many she had, but she was sure she lost a few now and then.I know she wasnt getting 1200 dollars an acre though here.theres good points and bad points about doing this though,my biggest problem with it was the goats ate exactly the same types of browse deer use most,invariably pressure on the neighboring farmers crops would go up,there would be more deer/auto collisions etc.of course that would happen if you used a dozer also.so you really cant blame the method.though with mechanical means you could selectivly leave cover.

Here is a simple rule on fencing for goats. #1Take a bucket of water to the fence in question.
#2 Throw water at fence.
Any where the water goes through so will a goat!

And they wonder why California is broke?

(quoted from post at 11:20:05 08/10/11) Here is a simple rule on fencing for goats. #1Take a bucket of water to the fence in question.
#2 Throw water at fence.
Any where the water goes through so will a goat!

Click to expand...

hat has been my experience & why I don't have them anymore......someone in the county does, I guess? That lady in OK, must have some well trained goats........I sure didn't.

(quoted from post at 11:20:05 08/10/11) Here is a simple rule on fencing for goats. #1Take a bucket of water to the fence in question.
#2 Throw water at fence.
Any where the water goes through so will a goat!

Click to expand...

Didn't know that about goats. The farm where we keep our horse has 2 goats in a small fenced area (50x100?). Never heard of them getting out, never seen them try. They DO distort the fence by rubbing on it. Of course, they keep them fed and watered so maybe they realize they've got it pretty good.

You're gonna have mudslides regardless. It's just a matter of what clears the undergrowth. Goats won't burn your house to the ground. Wildfires might.

I read an article similar to this a couple years ago. In areas that are hard to access with heavy equipment and/or rocky, hilly, heavy brush and woody plant areas. They will fence off areas and use boer goats to mow. Goats are very efficient and effective mowers. The best thing about them is they prefer to eat all the junk unlike cattle and horses. Farmers around here use them to clean up pasture that is over run by brush and woody plants and weeds. It is amazing how goats will improve a place.

We use goats in northern CA also. Although I hate to suggest Mr. Johnny Gonzales is less than honest that $ number sounds like nonsence. Goats are cheap. Mostly it is done by competative bid, and the market is flooded with competation, Goats are US, Goats to Go and Diablo Goat Service are some of the local ones. They don't look like they are getting rich. They say they make there money selling meat to the ethnic market. Hispanics will buy anything but the nnalert/Arab market demands a perfect ram, so no cutting, and you have to provide a place for slaughter. However, if someone has a dream of getting rich renting out goats in California, if you really think there is $1250 an acre to be had, please don't let me discourage you. Make sure you include the cost of hauling water and stock loss to lions, bears and yote dogs in your business plan.

An acre of powerline cut here must cost about 1000$, with all the
big rocks and terrain it takes a long time and lot of repairs to the
equipment. Used to use agent orange on them but that didn't go
so well for the sprayer guys drenched in it.

We've got milking goats here in southern MO. Mostly we use the milk for calves and yogurt/fresh cheese in the summertime. We use an electrified netting fence that is portable. We don't have problems with them getting out. If we run them short on forage, they will occasionally get out if the ground on the fence is questionable, but overall, no problems. They have done a wonderful job in getting control of brush that was here when we came. It takes a while, but is cheaper than using a lot of gas/diesel a couple of times a year for brush hogging.

Christopher

Town near me at the foot of the NCmountains put up 3 strand electric fence around some Kudzu and put goats on it. They grazed the kudzu down, but it came back next year. Last time I was by there they hadn't put the goats on it and the Kudzu was lush.

KEH