In 2008, Jace Goodling created a sustainable solution to land overgrowth in Virginia. Dubbed “Goat Busters,” this business proves the adage “truth is stranger than fiction.” Goat Busters does its job by unleashing a band of goats to chew through weeds and other unwanted crops, thereby avoiding the use of environmentally harmful methods such as chemical treatments.
In 2008, Jace Goodling created a sustainable solution to land overgrowth in Virginia. Dubbed “Goat Busters,” this business proves the adage “truth is stranger than fiction.” Goat Busters does its job by unleashing a band of goats to chew through weeds and other unwanted crops, thereby avoiding the use of environmentally harmful methods such as chemical treatments.
The business is based in Afton, Virginia. It began when Goodling, originally a goat breeder, had goats which he could not sell for breeding stock. “I was raising kiko goats for breeding stock. Kiko is a New Zealand meat breed of goat, just like Angus are a meat breed of cattle,” Goodling explains. “They’re very hardy. When I started raising them about 18 years ago, there were very few breeders in the United States. So I was selling young goats for seed stock or breeding stock for other commercial meat goat operations.” While the prime stock of Goodling’s goat herd was sold for breeding purposes, he had quite a few goats still hanging around once the prime stock was gone. “I had a number of goats that I couldn’t sell for breeding stock because they didn’t meet the quality standards,” he says. “But that herd was accumulating on my farm… and they were doing their job of cleaning up the farm.”
After seeing the goats he couldn’t sell for breeding stock doing such a good job pruning the unwanted underbrush on his own farm, Goodling decided to expand, offering the services of his goats to others in the area. “I was actually copying the lady who was the original meat [goat producer] of the kikos, Dr. An Peischel. She’s at the University of Tennessee right now,” Goodling explains. “She imported the original kikos into the U.S. and she has for years run large herds for brush management, mainly in California for fire-prevention efforts. They eat the underbrush, and then there’s nothing for a fire to burn.” Goat Busters eventually helped clean up Richmond’s Chimborazo Park, as well as a variety of other local patches of land, from large fields to private backyards.
Concerning the goats’ environmental impact, only good can come from what they do clearing land. According to Goodling, “Not only are they attacking the invasive species, but they are spreading about two pounds wet-weight of fertilizer every day… Being a fairly lightweight, cloven-hoofed animal, their little hooves are actually slicing that top layer of soil, and they’re working that fertilizer into soils. So they’re enriching the soil as they go along. So we have an erasing carbon footprint!” The fertilizer that the goats produce themselves is cleaner and better for soil than any you could buy on the market. So while they clean your land, they are also improving its quality, rather than eradicating it of nutrients as many other chemically based cleanup methods would.
Because the goats are living creatures, there are limitations to what they can eat. “They can clear a lot of things, but there are a number of plants they can’t eat because they’re toxic and will kill them,” Goodling says. “Azaleas, rhododendron, mountain laurel, [and] Japanese yew will all kill a goat. Curiously enough, [the goats] can eat English ivy by itself… [or] wisteria by itself.” However, if both plants exist on the same property, “we can’t do it, because if they eat both of them at the same time, they will die in about an hour and fifteen minutes.” Conversely, there are also things goats love to eat that are poisonous to humans. “Poison ivy is like candy to them!” Goodling says. “They love it.”
This cleanup technique is not only one of the most environmentally conscious methods available, it’s also a source of entertainment. “The whole other side of it is what I call the ‘agri-tainment’ end,” says Goodling. “95 percent of our private clients, backyard people… will have a goat party while the goats are there. They’ll have their friends over to watch the goats, laugh at them… you know. Watch them eat and tear stuff up.”
If you have a patch of brush that needs clearing, and you would enjoy watching ravenous goats take care of the situation for you–and who wouldn’t, really?–you can contact Goat Busters and schedule an appointment by going to vagoatbusters.com, or by calling (434)531-6166.
