BREWSTER — They’re the original brush hog.
As Stacy Greaves of Goat Green says, they’re browsers not grazers, so while her herd of goats won’t clip your lawn they’ll rid the yard of bush, weeds, vines and all sorts of invasive nuisances.
“There’s no herbicide, no fossil fuel, no noise pollution, it’s more natural,” Greaves said. “We do residential, commercial, we develop a plan specific to each client. They eat and fill their bellies up and then they’re quiet.”
Last week she had eight goats snug inside an electric fence clearing out a dense tangle of Asiatic bittersweet, multiflora rose, sycamore maple saplings, English ivy, English holly, Japanese knotweed as well as a few native plants such as bull brier, at the Route 6A home of Mary Chafee and Don Arthur in Brewster.
Chaffee, who is a Brewster select board member as well as the town’s representative to the Assembly of Delegates, hosted a Coffee with the Goats (Frito, Gus, Bambi, Leland, Peanut, Pepper, Casper and Zachary) last Thursday morning.
The goats were spending three days chewing on whatever growth they could reach, and since they can stand on their hind legs, that’s quite a bit.
“Stacy opened the business four years ago on Cape Cod (in Centerville). The goats are an alternative to using big mowing machines like a Gravely or toxic chemicals. That was important to us as we’re on Schoolhouse Pond. We wanted them to work inside the 100 foot barrier,” said Chaffee.
The home, built by sea captain Benjamin Freeman in 1847, was operated as a bed and breakfast at one time. While the grounds are expansive and planted with towering specimen trees such as European beech, a redwood and Douglass fir, parts of the property were a dense tangle of exotic invasives that would’ve been a massive project to remove by hand. Chaffee had seen something online about Goat Green and contacted Greaves and together they went through the necessary administrative review.
“I worked with Noelle (Bramer, the conservation agent) because we’re close to Schoolhouse Pond and Stacy notified [Police Chief Heath Eldredge] to see if we needed a permit,” Chaffee said. “So administratively this is an easy thing to do. The goats are also cost effective. The only thing we have to do is top off their water, and they get water from all the vegetation they eat.”
The goats have an added advantage as they can digest seeds, preventing weeds from sprouting. However, the bittersweet, rose and knotweed retain their roots but the biggest vines can now be cut from the trees and resprouting suppressed.
The goats are all male, not because females couldn’t do the job, but they are all rescue goats. Males are often discarded as they can’t be milked and goats are usually kept for dairy purposes.
“I bought the first three and needed a way to sustain the herd if I continued to rescue them,” Greaves recalled. “I researched for a year about what can I do to help the environment. My kids are grown up and it was my turn to do something I wanted to do. So my passion for animals and the environment came together. I have dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, I love animals. I knew what I wanted to do would be beneficial, certainly close to kettle ponds and waterways.”
Her herd now has 14 goats. She sets up her portable four-foot electric fence, installs the goats and they go to work. Standing up they can reach six feet, removing all the greenery, twigs and smaller branches, as well as herbaceous growth on the ground. Last week there were three Nubian, two Nigerian, two Nubian/alpine crosses and one kinder goat on the job in Brewster.
Goat Green has traveled as far as Truro and Falmouth with her goats.
“Goats are definitely not particular,” Greaves noted. “People understand this is not a magic solution but it is an alternative method to keep up with it, and it is way more fun.”
Some people brought their youngsters to watch the goats. Greaves said the goats can have therapeutic effects on disabled folks, autistic youngsters and people in general. She’s seen neighborhoods come together and hold a barbeque while the goats browse.
“People bond with the goats,” she said. “They’re affectionate, sweet, gentle, and intelligent, I like everything about them.”
Credit: eastham.wickedlocal.com