Agriculture/Business Career Options

Unstoppable eating machines: why Australian farmers are renting out goats for weed control​

basilio said:

Great story on someone using a clever natural solution to very effective weed control and building a profitable little business into the bargain.
Hiring out goats to clean up weed infested small to medium size acreages. They also fertilise the soil

Unstoppable eating machines: why Australian farmers are renting out goats for weed control​

Goats have a well-deserved reputation for eating anything. Now you can rent them to deal with your weed problems
by Bianca Nogrady

La Niña has been good to the backyards and farmlands of much of eastern Australia. Cooler, wetter conditions have led to a flourishing of lush grass, trees and – unfortunately – weeds.

With so many more people working from home, the joy of gazing out of the home office window has turned to dread as the eye alights on knee-high greenery, terrifying tangles of blackberry, pink heads of scotch thistle, and possibly the occasional triffid.

Lawnmowers are noisy and polluting, scythes are so last century, and whipper-snippers can give up the ghost within seconds. What they need is an unstoppable eating machine that will relish the dietary challenge, requires no fuel, and needs only to be left to do its job.

Across Australia, and around the world, mobs of voracious goats are being unleashed – in a carefully controlled fashion – on unwanted flora, and their appeal lies not just in their sustainability.

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Michael Blewitt with some of his goats at Strathfield girls high school, where the goats are being used to manage weed growth. Photograph: David Maurice Smith/Oculi
“It’s a lot nicer watching a goat eat something than watching a lawn mower or a brushcutter,” says Michael Blewitt, owner of Dry Creek Farm, based in Mudgee, which rents out mobs of goats to help landowners get on top of their weed problems.

Unstoppable eating machines: why Australian farmers are renting out goats for weed control

Goats have a well-deserved reputation for eating anything. Now you can rent them to deal with your weed problems

www.theguardian.com

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