Weed Control for Municipalities

We frequently work with fire departments, cities and counties, and municipalities of all kinds to take care of undesirable vegetation on public lands. Goat grazing can help municipalities with noxious weed control and invasive plant removal. Goats also do a great job of reducing fire fuel loads in wildfire-prone areas, and can help meet requirements for fire risk management.

Western Grazers is based at Blue Tent Farms in beautiful northern California and works with governments and agencies across the state. Every site is different, so we will discuss your municipality’s goals with you and create a customized grazing plan. Goat grazing is a versatile, eco-friendly tool that can be adapted to many different needs and expectations.

Benefits of Goat Grazing for Municipalities

Many cities and other municipalities are looking for ways to be more environmentally sustainable. Goats offer a greener, lower-impact way to target invasive plants and eliminate fire risks.

By using goats, you can reduce the amount of herbicides and other chemicals, and minimize machine mowing and its associated pollution. Our goats also can go where people and mowing equipment can’t, like rocky terrain, steep hillsides and other tough areas.

In dry seasons and droughts, machine mowing and prescribed burning both carry a risk of accidental fire, which goat grazing helps avoid. When prescribed burns are possible, grazing can be done ahead of burning as an aid to fire fuel reduction. Goats are also more effective than mowing in reducing fuel loads, since besides eating ground vegetation, they will stand on their hind legs to reach leaves above ground level.

How It Works

We will bring the right number of goats to get your job done, and manage them on-site until the work is complete. Our herds are supervised by Peruvian herdsmen with over 20 years of experience, helped out by trained Border Collie herding dogs and Great Pyrenees guard dogs. The goats will be moved from place to place as needed until the job is done.

We use Kiko goats, a hardy, vigorous grazing goat breed originating in the challenging terrain of New Zealand, and we train them from birth to graze behind electric fencing and netting. This method allows us to target their grazing precisely with the use of temporary fencing at each site.

Goats will eat just about any kind of plant they can, which makes them excellent at clearing noxious weeds from an area, including poison oak, star thistles, brooms, blackberry and other difficult shrubs and plants.

You can see our goats in action while working for the City of West Sacramento in 2017, clearing grasses and weeds from municipal waterways, trails, parkways and highway frontages.

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