Go Green and Rent Goats
Most of the time when you’ve got a patch of weeds to get under control, you head over to the nearest garden center or hardware store and purchase a bottle of weed killer, take it home and apply it to your problem area. After a day or two the weeds are dying or dead and the job is done. This works well if you have an average sized lawn or garden.
So, what if you don’t want to use chemical weed killers, or have a patch of troublesome poison ivy, kudzu, or thorny blackberries that you can’t wade into? And if you’re faced with a big job, like an acre of massive tangled overgrowth that might defy even a bush hog, who ya gonna call? Goat busters!
That’s right. Conceptually Renting is a green concept and for the greenest of green and organic weed & brush control, many areas of the country can now take advantage of goat rental services. You can rent a small herd of goats to help clear brush, weeds, or just high grass. Goat rentals give one the ability to do landscaping work that would otherwise require harsh chemicals or large tractors and thus is an ecology conscious and earth friendly way to effectively clear land.
In all fairness, the use of goats to get troublesome vegetation under control will generally require at least two applications, yet this is true of chemical herbicides and also machine based methods. The benefit of using goats is that the land itself does not suffer and you can quickly introduce desirable plants on the land afterwards. Using chemical methods often renders the land unusable for long periods after the vegetation is eradicated. Renting four-legged lawn mowers does not negatively impact the earth.
Goat Rentals
It is important to note that goats do not make wood a part of their diet, so branches and other woody remains will require additional measures. Some goat rental companies also provide these services, or can recommend a service to address cleanup of what the goats do not have on their menu. Many goat rental services also will erect temporary fencing to keep their crews focused on a particular area.
Like many trends, the use of goats to clear land started in California, where goats were found to be an effective tool for clearing underbrush on steep fire-prone hillsides that were difficult to access. The idea caught on and in Silicon Valley, tech giants Google and Yahoo even rented goat herds to maintain their corporate grounds. The concept is now gaining acceptance across the country.
This novel and unique method of clearing troublesome vegetation might just lend a whole new meaning to the old question: What gets your goat?
