![]() Some modern shepherds and goatherds rely on lightweight, movable electric fencing, but this is prone to disaster - it easily shorts out in rainy weather, and livestock (especially goats) are notorious for escaping if given enough unsupervised time. You need fencing, which will likely cost far more than the animals to install. Staking livestock to a rope and expecting them to clear vegetation is ineffective and can result in animals dying of strangulation. Sheep are like lawnmowers, while goats are more like Bush Hogs (for the uninitiated, that’s the brand name for a machine designed to clear heavy brush). Sheep will eat woody vegetation but prefer grass and weeds on the ground. Goats will eat grass and ground-level weeds, but they prefer taller, woodier vegetation and will stand on their hind legs to strip foliage and bark from them, weakening and eventually killing the plants. It’s important to know the difference between the two species and which is best suited for the habitat you have in mind. ![]() Whether you’re considering using a rental service or investing in a herd of your own, here are a few pointers to help maximize your success. But as with any miracle cure, this one can create as many problems as it solves. Cute animals clearing acres of brush while fertilizing the earth as they frolic to and fro may seem like an ingenious land-management solution. Landowners across the country are investing in herds of their own to control invasive vegetation rather than using herbicides. The trend has gone viral to the point of creating a new industry - you can now find livestock rental services in many American cities. Zach Richardson, one of my co-conspirators in this enterprise, runs a livestock rental company called the Nashville Chew Crew and was recently profiled in the New York Times with the headline “ Make America Graze Again. Years ago, I had a herd of dairy goats and kept getting requests to “rent” them out for this purpose, which became a side business for my farm for a couple of years. In addition to bearing adorable offspring and delivering the raw ingredient for delicious cheeses, the beautiful thing about goats and sheep is that they love to eat the plants that people are forever at war with, like kudzu, poison ivy and blackberry brambles.
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