JANUARY 9, 2019 - our first Stomp &Chomp:
Goat fest for organic weed control.
News Coverage of our Chomp & Stomp
KGUN9 Coverage by Craig Smith - with "Goat Pro" footage
Tucson News Now Emily Biehl's video coverage of goats with lots of information about Urban Grazers and the impact of goats grazing.
Written story from Emily
Youtube video on Goats
PROS AND CONS: Below are some thoughts after our first Stomp & Chomp Goat Fest:
Our goal for this project was to do ORGANIC weed control and clean the entire length of a one block easement for wildfire and crime prevention. That goal was accomplished. It is possibly the first time in decades that the whole length of that easement has been clean with the weeds chopped down to less than 6 inches and the trees pruned to about 5 - 6 feet off the ground behind ALL the homes. You can see clearly from one end of the easement to the other.
However, the goats are like a crew going through with weed whackers. The base of the plant is left behind, including the roots. Eventually, the weeds will regrow. The seed heads are all gone, since the goats eat blossoms and seed heads first (yummy), so there will be fewer new weeds than there would have been. After chomping the blossoms and seed heads, the goats then go back and chew progressively downwards on the plants. Sheep remove roots and the whole plant, but goats do not.
If you want a scorched earth easement with barren dirt left behind and all the weeds totally removed, then goats are NOT the way to go. In order to do that, you will need to hand pull the weeds yourself, hire a landscaping crew, hire a herd of sheep, and/or use weed toxins not only behind your own home, but also organize your neighbors in the easement to do this, too.
This was an experiment for all of us. Christopher and Tutti of Urban Grazers had not grazed their goats within a neighborhood setting before. There are some different plants in our easements than what the goats have been eating along the river (and goats do have preferences in what they eat - I didn't know they love dried palm fronds?!?!). Urban Grazers could not be sure how much the goats could graze in a day and how close the goats would have the chance to crop the weeds in just one day. Also, the media coverage was great, but it did get the goats off to a slow start. As the day wore on the goats became more used to strangers in their midst.
Given more time (another day) the goats would have cropped the weeds even closer to the ground. As it was, remaining weed height varied from an inch to about 5 inches.
There were 13 homes on this easement. 8 were willing to pay $25 each to total the $200 that Urban Grazers charged. Easements will vary in price depending on the quantity of vegetation to be cropped. Some easements are incredibly overgrown. We are making every attempt to keep the price at $25 per household, but that totally depends on how many households are willing to contribute and how much vegetation has accumulated.
We felt that $25 was a realistic investment for residents to ensure that not only the rear of their own home was safe, but that ALL the homes bordering their easement were free of weeds and low hanging vegetation. This portion of the Justin/Desmond easement is no longer a fire hazard or secret haven for criminal activity.
We did have some volunteers show up who helped remove the trash and materials the goats could not eat. Thank you, Mary, Deborah, Jack, and Michele!
Our goal for this project was to do ORGANIC weed control and clean the entire length of a one block easement for wildfire and crime prevention. That goal was accomplished. It is possibly the first time in decades that the whole length of that easement has been clean with the weeds chopped down to less than 6 inches and the trees pruned to about 5 - 6 feet off the ground behind ALL the homes. You can see clearly from one end of the easement to the other.
However, the goats are like a crew going through with weed whackers. The base of the plant is left behind, including the roots. Eventually, the weeds will regrow. The seed heads are all gone, since the goats eat blossoms and seed heads first (yummy), so there will be fewer new weeds than there would have been. After chomping the blossoms and seed heads, the goats then go back and chew progressively downwards on the plants. Sheep remove roots and the whole plant, but goats do not.
If you want a scorched earth easement with barren dirt left behind and all the weeds totally removed, then goats are NOT the way to go. In order to do that, you will need to hand pull the weeds yourself, hire a landscaping crew, hire a herd of sheep, and/or use weed toxins not only behind your own home, but also organize your neighbors in the easement to do this, too.
This was an experiment for all of us. Christopher and Tutti of Urban Grazers had not grazed their goats within a neighborhood setting before. There are some different plants in our easements than what the goats have been eating along the river (and goats do have preferences in what they eat - I didn't know they love dried palm fronds?!?!). Urban Grazers could not be sure how much the goats could graze in a day and how close the goats would have the chance to crop the weeds in just one day. Also, the media coverage was great, but it did get the goats off to a slow start. As the day wore on the goats became more used to strangers in their midst.
Given more time (another day) the goats would have cropped the weeds even closer to the ground. As it was, remaining weed height varied from an inch to about 5 inches.
There were 13 homes on this easement. 8 were willing to pay $25 each to total the $200 that Urban Grazers charged. Easements will vary in price depending on the quantity of vegetation to be cropped. Some easements are incredibly overgrown. We are making every attempt to keep the price at $25 per household, but that totally depends on how many households are willing to contribute and how much vegetation has accumulated.
We felt that $25 was a realistic investment for residents to ensure that not only the rear of their own home was safe, but that ALL the homes bordering their easement were free of weeds and low hanging vegetation. This portion of the Justin/Desmond easement is no longer a fire hazard or secret haven for criminal activity.
We did have some volunteers show up who helped remove the trash and materials the goats could not eat. Thank you, Mary, Deborah, Jack, and Michele!
POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN THINKING ABOUT HIRING URBAN GRAZERS:
Property owners and tenants are responsible for the maintenance of the easement behind their home to the middle. The easement behind your home should NOT have piles of yard waste or weeds above 12 inches.
Urban Grazers is a business. The Garden District Neighborhood Association could NOT pay to do this. It would have to be residents (tenants and/or owners) chipping in to pay to clean up their easement or alley. How much it would cost to graze an easement/alley would depend upon its condition. Some are better maintained than others, also length and width varied. Cost would also depend on how many residents along that easement were willing to chip in to pay the fee.
A point to consider is the best time to have the goats graze is when weeds are blossoming, but BEFORE the seeds form. In the Justin/Desmond easement, they will definitely have fewer Yellow Rocket weeds next year, because they were blooming full force and the goats thought those flowers were quite tasty. As a Landscape Architecture Professor from the U of A told me once, you have to pull the weeds BEFORE the seed heads set and do that EVERY year. You will get fewer and fewer weeds eventually as the years go by until that weed plant is suppressed,
Part of the cost for Urban Grazers is transporting the 15 goats. Also, at least one person will stay with the goats throughout the day.
The goats graze heavily for the first part of the day, then lie down for awhile, rest, and take water, then graze for the rest of the day. If homeowners could provide water for the goats, that would cut costs slightly for Urban Grazers.
From extension.org: Through their grazing habits, goats reduce the production of seeds by consuming seeding stems. The immature seeds consumed do not survive passage through the digestive tract. Mature seeds may pass through the goat in the manure. Goats may reduce woody vegetation through debarking, resulting in plant death. Through digestion and the passing of feces and urine, goats release plant nutrients tied up in unwanted vegetation, making those nutrients available for other plant growth. Further, as goats make progress in controlling vegetation, ticks, mice, rats, and snakes can be reduced due to reductions in their habitat.
Goats are ruminants and have four stomachs. Because seeds pass through their digestive system of 4 stomachs, the seeds in the goat poop are not as viable and do not sprout like seeds dropped in a cow patty will. It depends on the seed type as to how viable the seeds deposited in goat poop are. One study showed 96% of Tumbleweed seeds were killed and would not sprout. Urban Grazers is working with Trees for Tucson right now to conduct research on how Bufflegrass seeds are impacted by a goat's digestive system.
Goats eat most, but not all vegetation:
Property owners and tenants are responsible for the maintenance of the easement behind their home to the middle. The easement behind your home should NOT have piles of yard waste or weeds above 12 inches.
Urban Grazers is a business. The Garden District Neighborhood Association could NOT pay to do this. It would have to be residents (tenants and/or owners) chipping in to pay to clean up their easement or alley. How much it would cost to graze an easement/alley would depend upon its condition. Some are better maintained than others, also length and width varied. Cost would also depend on how many residents along that easement were willing to chip in to pay the fee.
A point to consider is the best time to have the goats graze is when weeds are blossoming, but BEFORE the seeds form. In the Justin/Desmond easement, they will definitely have fewer Yellow Rocket weeds next year, because they were blooming full force and the goats thought those flowers were quite tasty. As a Landscape Architecture Professor from the U of A told me once, you have to pull the weeds BEFORE the seed heads set and do that EVERY year. You will get fewer and fewer weeds eventually as the years go by until that weed plant is suppressed,
Part of the cost for Urban Grazers is transporting the 15 goats. Also, at least one person will stay with the goats throughout the day.
The goats graze heavily for the first part of the day, then lie down for awhile, rest, and take water, then graze for the rest of the day. If homeowners could provide water for the goats, that would cut costs slightly for Urban Grazers.
From extension.org: Through their grazing habits, goats reduce the production of seeds by consuming seeding stems. The immature seeds consumed do not survive passage through the digestive tract. Mature seeds may pass through the goat in the manure. Goats may reduce woody vegetation through debarking, resulting in plant death. Through digestion and the passing of feces and urine, goats release plant nutrients tied up in unwanted vegetation, making those nutrients available for other plant growth. Further, as goats make progress in controlling vegetation, ticks, mice, rats, and snakes can be reduced due to reductions in their habitat.
Goats are ruminants and have four stomachs. Because seeds pass through their digestive system of 4 stomachs, the seeds in the goat poop are not as viable and do not sprout like seeds dropped in a cow patty will. It depends on the seed type as to how viable the seeds deposited in goat poop are. One study showed 96% of Tumbleweed seeds were killed and would not sprout. Urban Grazers is working with Trees for Tucson right now to conduct research on how Bufflegrass seeds are impacted by a goat's digestive system.
Goats eat most, but not all vegetation:
- The goats LOVE Buffelgrass, which is a highly invasive, extremely flammable grass that we have a lot of in the easements. Bufflegrass is dangerous because we have so much foot traffic through the easements. A single carelessly discarded cigarette or match from heating drugs could cause a wildfire.
- Goats will NOT eat Palo Verde, but will crop (prune) a mesquite to the height that it can reach -- about five feet off the ground. (which is the height police recommend keeping trees in easements so that they do not provide hiding places for the bad guys.)
- They will not eat plants in the nightshade family, such as Datura.
- Generally the goats will not eat cactus and aloe, especially if there are tender, sweet weeds to eat..
- Christopher and Tutti are not sure if the goats will eat or if it is safe for the goats to eat Rus Lancia (African Sumac) or lantana. They are researching this.
- Any vegetation hanging over your back wall from your backyard into the easement will be cropped (pruned). It can be protected by wrapping it or tying it up.
- If you have deliberately planted a plant in the easement, it will probably be eaten, unless protected by wrapping it or putting a box over it.
- Christopher and Tutti will not allow their goats to browse a pile of yard waste because they cannot be sure what is in that pile and their goat's safety is their number one priority.
