Goats, The Obvious Choice in a Recession

November 2, 2009 1:17 AM

Towns everywhere are looking for ways to cut costs during the current economic downturn. Andover, Mass has come up with one interesting solution, goats. Andover is not the only place goats are being used in the place of weed wackers and lawn mowers. Google is also going with goats, citing the reduction in pollution and the cuteness factor. Possibly they may also attempt to lighten the mood in the office, by mixing in some fainting goats.
posted by meta87 (34 comments total)

Cue 'Here's my pet goat, see?' jokes in 3...2...1...


so not clicking any like that gets posted in this thread
posted by CardinalRichelieuHandPuppet at 2:53 AM on November 2, 2009

Goats are evil bastards. On the upside, they will try to eat anything they can. I think I told this story in the Kudzu thread a while back, but one of my great uncles has a goat that killed itself trying to eat a pasture full of kudzu.
posted by strixus at 3:09 AM on November 2, 2009

also by like, I mean link
posted by CardinalRichelieuHandPuppet at 3:27 AM on November 2, 2009

The goats will come from the yard of a nearby resident, who plans to walk the animals to the 3-acre meadow each day, herd them inside a temporary fence she will provide, rotate their grazing around the pasture, and bring them home at night.

“They’re very good browsers,’’ said Lucy McKain, who owns the animals and is leader of a 4-H dairy goat club. “It’s a win-win. It’s pretty neat.’’

With money tight and other projects needing attention, the town could not afford to spend on the heavy equipment, fuel, and labor required to clean up and maintain the meadow, a popular destination for hiking, bird-watching, and cross-country skiing.

Win-win except for the laborers that just got laid off in favor of a volunteer. Not to mention anyone who wants to use the public meadow for non-goat-turd reasons.

If the town actually paid for the service, including pens and vet visits and so forth, I wonder if goats would be cheaper.
posted by DU at 4:23 AM on November 2, 2009

Goats? Hm. Around here, I've seen a flock of sheep rented out to "mow" the big grassy hills around the racetrack and clean up the vineyards. I'm not sure I'd trust goats around crops.
posted by majick at 4:31 AM on November 2, 2009

majick-
goats cut grass with their teeth. sheep pull it out with their lips. Sheep will decimate a pasture, because they pull greens out by the roots. Goats, not so much.

When I was a kid, my dad was a park ranger. We got goats from the nearby university for this exact same reason, and so my dad could do something with his days besides cut grass. We're very hilly here too, so mowing some of the land would have been nearly unpossible.

DU--I'd argue that those laborers never needed to be hired in the first place. Nobody needed to fire up big ass kubotas do mow a field when there were farm critters around.
posted by TomMelee at 5:00 AM on November 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I wonder if goats would be cheaper

Vail, CO has been doing this for more than five years. "The program is relatively inexpensive in that the cost of the operation is approximately $1 per goat per day."

Great Organic Agricultural Tool
posted by netbros at 5:19 AM on November 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

I'd argue that those laborers never needed to be hired in the first place.

I'd argue that you are mistaken. Even the goats have a caretaker. You need someone to at least manage the goats, make sure they are in the right areas, don't escape, are cared for if they get sick, etc. Paying people to do all that is the main money the city is saving and that's not because of the switch from gas engines to goats, it's because they fired their workers and found a sucker to do it for free.
posted by DU at 5:22 AM on November 2, 2009

it's because they fired their workers and found a sucker to do it for free.

Who's gonna be laughing when one of them goats gets itself kebabed at 5$ a pita?

Mowing the grass is just one step of their Grand Plan of World Domination.
posted by mikelieman at 5:38 AM on November 2, 2009

Regardless, one goat caretaker is significantly cheaper than a fleet of mowing men and equipment. There's no health insurance on goats, and when they die you get a new one for $7-$21, depending on the livestock auction in your area.

I'm sure governmental bloat ads to that figure significantly, but regardless it's still cheaper. I'm all for jobs, but I'm not all about the city beautification crap. My university literally mowed the grass of the main campus every single day. Every day. What. A. Waste.
posted by TomMelee at 6:12 AM on November 2, 2009

DU, what makes you think the goats are cutting into labor expenditures? I'm reading the article and it looks like

-the goats are being used on previously unmaintained parkland that has not been in the budget ("municipal maintenance for an area like Hammond Reservation would be a non-starter in budget talks." "With little town money available for conservation land maintenance, the meadow hasn't been mowed in years.")
-the goats may be used to open other parkland that's been unmaintained
-budget cuts had already caused the city to abandon upkeep of this and some other parks

I'm serious about job creation, but this program really doesn't seem like it's taking jobs away, given that the budget wouldn't allow the jobs to have been created in the first place. Meanwhile, it's providing browse for a certified raw goat milk producer who is maintaining local farm production in a rapidly suburbanizing area of Massachusetts. It may allow the herd to grow and increase local food production capacity. It seems like a clear net good, considered over not implementing the program.
posted by Miko at 6:30 AM on November 2, 2009

This would sound great if the animal in question were anything but goats. Goats are horrifying, evil, and deserve all of the negative associations they have.

I don't care what problem you have, the solution is never something with square pupils.
posted by Copronymus at 6:46 AM on November 2, 2009

Goat Renter Guy commercial.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:55 AM on November 2, 2009

Limiting goat access seems to be done by fencing them in an area. From the groups I've seen, they're allowed to roam for a certain period of time, either by themselves or with a large herding dog for protection (that was out in a rather rural area, possibly home to large predatory cats). No active herding to get them to eat certain areas, just a stationary fence.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:25 AM on November 2, 2009

There's no health insurance on goats, and when they die you get a new one for $7-$21...

Oh good, the Bathroom Monkey concept has made it to real life. Let's add some animal welfare monitoring costs to that bill.

I think you'd have to run the numbers of how much area a man can mow in a day vs how many goats (and therefore caring-for-goats humans) you'd need to cover the same area.

Not that I want to sound down about goats. I'd actually prefer the goat system even if it cost more money, because it's quieter and less pollutiony (except for the dung). Maybe hire another guy to take care of that.

MetaFilter: Quieter and less pollutiony (except for the dung).
posted by DU at 7:33 AM on November 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Brush-Clearing Spanish Goat Warehouse! Brush-Clearing Spanish Goat Warehouse! (I think there's some Boer goats in there too). Anyway, that's the company that our city government has hired to clear a disused site for a new rec/science facility.
posted by electroboy at 7:35 AM on November 2, 2009

Maybe I'm missing a point, but isn't the purpose of keeping a meadow neatly manicured so that humans can enjoy it? I'm not really sure of the pooping habits of goats, but I'd imagine they probably would leave droppings on the meadow, thus making it relatively unpleasant for people to use. So at that point, why bother even using goats or grooming it at all?
posted by explosion at 7:41 AM on November 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

" Sheep will decimate a pasture, because they pull greens out by the roots. "

If you've seen the stuff that grows between rows of grapevines, or the stuff that's passing for greenery out in the fields behind my house, you'd agree that this is a good thing.
posted by majick at 8:27 AM on November 2, 2009

Seattle does this as well. A few weeks ago, in Othello Park, I observed a herd of goats from Vashon Island clearing a hillside. The hillside was completely overrun and brambly, but apparently it would only take the goats two days to clear it. Amazing!

Another great thing about this program: it suports local farmers.
posted by lunasol at 8:31 AM on November 2, 2009

"Maybe I'm missing a point, but isn't the purpose of keeping a meadow neatly manicured so that humans can enjoy it?"

Maybe things are different in Andover, but here? No, it's for fire prevention. I'd prefer not to have poop all over the place, but I'd prefer not to get burned out of my house more.
posted by majick at 8:32 AM on November 2, 2009

If you're bothered by poop in your meadow, the cause is lost in the Andover area. The Canada Geese have slimed all those open areas.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:40 AM on November 2, 2009

they probably would leave droppings on the meadow, thus making it relatively unpleasant for people to use

The advantage of using the movable pen is that it can be relocated every few days, giving the goats a new area to graze in. The poop will be in that area. As the goats walk, they'll tread it into the ground, and rainwater will break it up in a few days. It doesn't accumulate much, as it would in a fixed corral.

In any case, the rabbits, deer, and other wildlife that use meadows poop on them too. There's poop in nature. A half dozen goats that are moved around aren't going to coat the pasture in poo.

Aside from fire prevention and recreation, the other points of maintaining meadow are: increased biodiversity through increased habitat variety (especially bird habitat); maintain open green space, the lowest-cost land use a town can plan for; and filter rainwater.
posted by Miko at 8:42 AM on November 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

On a recent visit I saw a bunch of goats on the grounds of the Vanderbilt estate in Hyde Park, NY. They were munching on poison Ivy and Sumac on the steep hills which are pretty much impossible to mow.
posted by HyperBlue at 9:03 AM on November 2, 2009

Next year I plan to have a herd of Boer (possibly Nubian mix) goats for meat production, perhaps renting out and entertainment, of course :) Goat kids are probably the funniest animals to watch.
posted by Kickstart70 at 9:28 AM on November 2, 2009

Goats are used in California for browsing unmowable areas, or in areas where, for whatever reason, people don't want mowers. Sea Ranch, up on the Sonoma coast, uses goats to keep brushy areas in check. They are adorable.
posted by rtha at 9:40 AM on November 2, 2009

Doesn't matter, my boyfriend still won't let me get sheep...or goats, for that matter. Some crazy "but we live in the city! and you can't put them in the garage!" thing he's got...

(sniff, sniff. I want goats!)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 10:00 AM on November 2, 2009

This would sound great if the animal in question were anything but goats. Goats are horrifying, evil, and deserve all of the negative associations they have.

Goats are excellent and provide milk for me to make soap and cheese. They're also really friendly, or they can be. Poorly bred goats are going to have problems. Some goats are cute enough where people think of them as pets, but most people who breed and raise them are get attached to their goats. I just recently visited a farm in Colorado where they raised pygmy goats, which don't produce as much milk but are cheaper to feed and easier to keep, and they're hilarious to watch, especially the kids.
posted by krinklyfig at 10:26 AM on November 2, 2009

My nieces use to have a billy goat that chased them onto the school bus one day and tried to bite their legs off till the bus driver fended him off.

On the upside, that was some good cabrito.
posted by emjaybee at 10:42 AM on November 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

On the upside, that was some good cabrito.

Aaaannnnd, I just learned a new word ... thanks!
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:49 AM on November 2, 2009

Goats are delightful. At least, my goats are delightful. Their poops are like rabbit poops, little inoffensive pellets. They sprinkle into the grass. In fact, goat manure is mild enough to be used fresh for fertilizing the garden; it doesn't need to be aged or composted, as it doesn't burn the plants.
posted by Lou Stuells at 12:45 PM on November 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

I saw something about these goats before. They are too funny!
posted by swilson at 1:43 PM on November 2, 2009

Lou Stuells, your goats ARE delightful!

Sheep would have been a terrible idea for this. Sheep will completely avoid even the greenest and most delicious weeds, preferring instead to rip up any viable grasses by the roots. I love them, but they are hard on pastures.

Goats, on the other hand, truly will eat anything. Our neighbors used to have a small herd of goats to "mow" some unused land. They got out one day and ate all of the weatherstripping from around the windshield of the neighbor's car.
posted by amarie at 4:07 PM on November 2, 2009

Seattle has been doing this for years and it has had nothing to do with the recession. Instead, it was about taking care of difficult brush and not using fossil fuels to do nature's job.
posted by Maztec at 8:41 PM on November 2, 2009

Considering how much money hay and feed run, I always wonder why the county doesn't bale the stuff they bush hog in the medians of interstates every summer. That stuff is nice, lots of red clover.

Or maybe they do, and I just always miss it. Man, baling that would be so much easier than on a farm. Drive straight on one side, cross over, drive straight back.

Anyways, my point is that this goat lady is recieving a pretty damn good deal, especially if she's hoping to sell the goats later. Animal fodder isn't negligible, especially when you aren't paying rent on the land they're eating from.
posted by rubah at 10:36 PM on November 2, 2009