Читать книгу Raising Goats For Dummies - Cheryl K. Smith - Страница 20

Goats are well-known for their ability to wipe out weeds. In fact, some people have made businesses out of renting out their goat herds to cities and other municipalities to clean up areas that are overgrown with weeds or blackberry bushes. These leased goats decrease the need to use herbicides, improve the soil’s fertility, decrease the risk of fire, increase the diversity of plants in the area, and control weeds in hard-to-reach areas, such as steep hills.

Because goats are browsers, they can share or alternate a pasture with sheep or cattle, which prefer different plants. Goats eat brush, leaves, and rough plants. They can improve pasture by removing noxious weeds, clear areas to be replanted with trees, and control leafy spurge, knapweed, Himalayan blackberry, giant ragweed, sunflowers, kudzu, and other weeds.

Not every plant is a great snack for a goat. I tell you about plants you need to keep away from your goats in Chapter 4.

Whether your goats are pets, milk producers, meat animals, or serve another purpose, they provide the side benefit of acting as living weed whackers. With some portable fencing or a guardian animal for protection, they range far and wide each day to keep your property free of noxious weeds.

Don’t expect to put them on a lawn and have them mow down the grass, though. “Lawnmower” is the job of sheep, not goats. Goats prefer to eat your rosebushes or lilacs.