
Goats fighting America's plant invasion - fidotron
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30583512
======
ndespres
When my coworkers see news like this they start telling me that I ought to
bring my fleet of Nubian goats out on jobs like this. They do great work,
easily digesting poison ivy (and destroying its seeds so it can't regrow from
their droppings).

Goats are a big component of a project I'm working on now, where they will
graze on fallow land, eating weeds and grasses, depositing fertilizer and
tilling the land with their hooves in the process.

In a small farming operation where the negatives to using many chemicals (to
fertilize crops, and to kill weeds) isn't even always safety or environmental,
but simply cost-related: the work that grazing animals like goats can provide
is a game-changer. Plus, they are super fun animals to be around. I used to
think that having a few backyard chickens for eggs would always be a no-
brainer decision, but now I am sure that I'll always keep a couple goats
around too.

~~~
stinos
_they will graze on fallow land, eating weeds and grasses, depositing
fertilizer and tilling the land with their hooves in the process_

Almost literally as it's described by John Seymour! Ok he talks about pigs,
but there's not _that_ much difference - quote: _To say nothing of the fact
that pigs are the finest free cultivators that were ever invented! They will
clear your land, and plough it, and dung it, and harrow it, and leave it
nearly ready for you to put your seed in, with no more labour to you than the
occasional shifting of an electric fence_

~~~
ndespres
I've got my hands full with my current flock, but I would love to have pigs
for this reason (among others). Would be great to have them root around in
some scrub land as Seymour describes, then use its new fertility to grow
grains to feed myself and the goats, continuing the cycle! Just not enough
time in the day :)

~~~
stinos
Yeah I know the feeling, never enough time. Maintaining land+flock really
seems to be a full time job. But pigs are awesome, very intelligent as well.
We have some kunekune pigs and while they don't prepare the land as described
above, they do happily eat grass and various kinds of plants the entire day
and usually drop their dung in a couple of confined places so it's relatively
easy to collect and use elsewhere. But I admit the main reason we have them is
they are super adorable, cute, friendly, funny, play well together with goats,
loved by children, don't require much looking after, you name it. Highly
recommened :P

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veidr
I love this hack. My mom had a small herd of pygmie goats for her Montessori
preschool. Some guy she knew convinced her to rent them out for this kind of
job.

It wasn't the money that convinced her (don't think those little guys were the
best earners) but the idea that "we could send in dudes with poison sprayers
and loud gas power mowers, or we could just send Billy and his friends in to
quietly munch on it for a few hours/days".

So many more eco points for doing it with the goats. Plus goats are
intelligent and an interesting population to have suddenly show up and take
over a spot. If there were any kids at the cleanup spot, interacting with the
goats was good for the kids. While being chauffeured to various feasts kept
the goats in high spirits.

Even the obvious down side isn't that bad -- goat shit comes out in these
clean little dry pellets; much better than dog shit or cow shit or bird shit
or a San Francisco sidewalk.

~~~
rprospero
> If there were any kids at the cleanup spot, interacting with the goats was
> good for the kids.

I read this sentence three times before finally deciding that you were using
"kid" to refer to human children and not young goats. It's true either way.

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stinos
Another advantage which isn't mentioned: the goats (or similar grazing
species) are also walking manure factories (really, compared to a compost heap
they are _machines_ ), so pretty effective at spreading fertilizer all over
the place. Automatically and for free :P

They perfectly fit in the self-sufficiency style - especially compared to the
alternative worst-case senario: you don't need to get your polluting vehicle
and drive to a store to pay money for some chemicals, then drive back and use
some other polluting machine to get the checmical crap where it has to do
whatever it does. Oh yeah, and repeat every year and be left with unhealthy
soil. Which can probably be countered with more chemicals, yay!

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manishsharan
I have always wondered why western nations do not consume goat meat. One of my
christian friends mentioned is that ii is because of hooves and devil
symbolism; is there any merit to this argument ? I understand Hindus don't eat
beef because of religious reasons and muslims don't eat pork also because of
religious reasons. This is a comparison of nutritional value of goat vs. beef
vs pork.
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=goat+meat+vs.+beef+vs.+...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=goat+meat+vs.+beef+vs.+pork)
. Bon Apetit!

~~~
digi_owl
I suspect it is a matter of taste.

As for the pork thing, it is not just muslims. Strictly speaking christians
should not touch it either as it is part of the old testament.

My personal take on this is that back then someone observed that people that
ate pork often ended up sick and died.

While we now know that is is because of an illness passed from pig to human,
back then it may well have been interpreted as divine punishment.

But then those days religion and law was one and the same, and so the
declaration of pork as unclean may well be seen as a health and safety
regulation.

Supposedly you can find passages from nearby cultures that line up very well
with the old testament, with one crucial difference. While other cultures
makes violations an offense against society, the bible makes them an offense
against god. Meaning that what others deemed a social or secular matter,
suddenly became religious.

~~~
sp332
Christians had those foods explicitly declared "clean" by God, at the same
time that he declared Gentiles clean.
[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2010&versi...](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2010&version=HCSB)

~~~
digi_owl
Guess it shows i am no theologian...

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MrBuddyCasino
When Amazon Japan used goats as lawnmowers [1], proper procedure had to be
maintained:

"The company has officially hired the goats following a procedure similar to
the one used when hiring humans: it made identity cards for goats, just as it
did for its human employees."

[1] [http://www.tokyotimes.com/amazon-japan-hires-goats-to-mow-
gr...](http://www.tokyotimes.com/amazon-japan-hires-goats-to-mow-grass/)

------
dalke
It takes 8 years for goat news to cross the Atlantic. ;) The NYT had an
article titled "In Tennessee, Goats Eat the ‘Vine That Ate the South’" in
2007, at
[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/us/05goats.html?_r=0](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/us/05goats.html?_r=0)
.

Tallahassee started using sheep in 1999 for kudzu. Unfortunately, people stole
10 of the sheep in 2001 ([http://jacksonville.com/tu-
online/stories/072701/met_6795173...](http://jacksonville.com/tu-
online/stories/072701/met_6795173.html) ) and another 21 in 2003
([http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20031004/NEWS/310040550](http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20031004/NEWS/310040550)
).

I can't find mention of Tallahassee still using animals for kudzu control.

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Eye_of_Mordor
Aren't these goats also an invasive species?

~~~
zwieback
I was wondering about that too, hopefully nothing like the wild pigs that
plague Texas will happen with the goats. We might just have to bring in tigers
or something like that to control the goats later on...

~~~
pixl97
In general hogs breed 3 to 4 times faster based on litter size.

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soneca
relevant map:
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/12/m...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/12/map-
literally-every-goat-in-the-united-states/)

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logn
Shark Tank season 5, episode 5: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHqBFqh-
SIY&t=1340](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHqBFqh-SIY&t=1340)

------
debacle
TIL phragmites is an invasive species. An incredibly fun and useful plant,
right up there with day lily (also invasive and hardy). Kudzu is beautiful but
incredibly destructive.

