Two goats took a quick step back then lunged forward. Their
heads collided with a pop and their horns, longer than an
outstretched hand, locked for a moment. With dust still hanging in
the air and as quickly as they started the battle, the goats bent
their heads and resumed grazing.
Gilroy – Two goats took a quick step back then lunged forward. Their heads collided with a pop and their horns, longer than an outstretched hand, locked for a moment. With dust still hanging in the air and as quickly as they started the battle, the goats bent their heads and resumed grazing.
The animals, part of a herd of 400 goats that roamed a seven-acre field in the Mesa Ridge development of southwest Gilroy, were not playing. They were hard at work, earning more than $500 a day for their owners doing what they do best – eating. The goats, which downed the seven acres of brush, thorny weeds and poison oak in about a week, are the heart of Intensive Grazing Projects, a Santa Cruz-based company that clears land using goats and sheep instead of mowers, weed whackers and herbicides.
“Mowing and weed whacking and disking really offer nothing but the efficiency,” said owner and operator Andrew Johnson, an energetic 26-year-old who sports long blond locks and is flush with too much sun. “Other than that, the only other hurdle is convention.”
Unlike traditional land clearing, intensive grazing requires patience and boldness. The 400 goats typically clear about an acre each day, as opposed to the tens of acres a landscaping crew could do in the same period. In addition, the sea of goats huddled to the side of the road often causes drivers to stop, gawk and take photographs.
However, organizations that can handle the attention will reap environmental and landscaping benefits, Johnson said. Intensive grazing does not use fossil fuels, leave behind dangerous chemicals or present a fire hazard, as does traditional mowing or spraying. In addition, the goats eat all parts of the brush, eliminating the seeds that typically are spread through weed whacking, and leave behind an abundant fertilizer.
Intensive grazing has a special advantage in areas that are hilly – and therefore difficult for lawnmowers to clear – or where wildlife needs to be protected. This was the case with the Mesa Ridge development, where salamanders hid in the seven-acre field, Johnson said.
However, the environmentally friendly landscaping comes at a price. While traditional land-clearing services cost about $1,000 for a 10-acre plot, intensive grazing could cost about $5,000 for the same parcel. While people often remark that Johnson should be paying landowners for his goats to eat on their land, he points out his operating costs. He must pay for fuel to transport the animals, goats’ water and supplemental food, 24-hour staffing, food for border collies that round up the animals, an electric fence, and biologists to survey the land. When Johnson sells the sick and old goats in winter, they rarely fetch more than $100 a head.
“These goats aren’t bred for meat, they’re raised to work,” said Johnson, a vegetarian. “They’re worth more to us that way.”
Expense notwithstanding, intensive grazing has its customers. Johnson’s company has executed more than two hundred jobs in its four years of existence, with the longest being a more than two-month graze in a housing development along the northbound side of U.S. 101 near its intersection with Highway 85.
Business has shown a clear increase during the past two years, reflecting an increasing interest in caring for land in an environmental manner, Johnson said.
“The state of California is slowly making an effort to do this,” he said. “More and more, the goats are becoming the thoughtful alternative,”
