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Experiment #
10
Ongoing
Testing Goats for Brush and Vegetation Management
We are testing whether a small herd of goats, can be a good addition to our farm early establishment to be used in place of a bushhog in some cases and definitely be used to clear brush and open some areas in around the farm and help fight back some kudzu areas.
several goats eating brush. Some goats standing on hind legs.
Core Question:
Can goats provide an effective, manageable, and economical alternative to machinery for clearing brush on the farm?
Overview:
The farm has large areas of heavy brush, vines, saplings, and other vegetation that need to be cleared or controlled. Mechanical clearing can produce fast results, but it is expensive, requires equipment or contractors, disturbs the soil, and often does not prevent the vegetation from returning.
We are considering purchasing a small herd of goats and using GPS-based virtual fencing to control where they graze. The goats would be moved through selected areas in controlled sections, allowing us to evaluate how well they consume different types of vegetation and how much repeated grazing is required to weaken or eliminate the unwanted growth.
This experiment will compare goat clearing with mechanical clearing on areas with similar vegetation. We will document the purchase and operating cost of the goats, fencing and collar costs, training requirements, daily labor, vegetation reduction, regrowth, soil disturbance, and the amount of time required to make each area usable.
The experiment will also evaluate the practical challenges of owning and managing goats, including water, shelter, health care, predators, containment, transportation, and what happens when the goats encounter vegetation they do not want to eat.
If the approach is successful, the results may support a repeatable vegetation-management method for the farm and could eventually help us evaluate whether a goat-clearing service would be practical as a separate farm business.
Current Result Summary:
The first phase of the comparison will use machinery to clear selected areas and establish a baseline for cost, speed, labor, and results.
The second phase will use goats on areas with similar vegetation. We are researching the purchase of a small herd and evaluating a GPS virtual-fencing system that may allow us to create and move grazing boundaries without installing permanent fencing.
No final conclusions have been reached. The initial goal is to determine whether goats can produce meaningful vegetation reduction while limiting soil disturbance and keeping total cost and management effort at a practical level.
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