Nathan Alford employs a sizeable team of vegetation management specialists who spend most of their day eating, but that is fine with him.
Alford runs Parker County Goat Rental, a company that rents its herd of 1,200 goats to clear land and brush around North Texas.
The goats can eat their way through just about any type of vegetation, weeds, and undergrowth, including invasive species like poison ivy and poison oak, providing an eco-friendly way to clear land and help prevent wildfires.
“If you ever need any clearing, eco-friendly, and you don’t have any issues with hearing a ‘nay’ or a ‘baa’ or a dog bark every once in a while, then this is a pretty easy way to clear out some land,” Alford told CBS News Texas.
When the goats arrive at their destination, their job is to eat as much vegetation as they can stomach. In late August, the goats were being rented out at roughly a dozen different job sites.
Not only are goats more eco-friendly, but they are also more agile than humans on steep slopes and in thick underbrush, allowing them to clear more land.
Alford prepares for a job by installing temporary fencing to keep the goats safe. Additionally, his herd works alongside at least two Great Pyrenees dogs that ward off coyotes, the goats’ main predator.
“[The dogs] do an extremely good job of keeping these goats protected,” Alford said to CBS. “And you’re going to know if there’s something around or nearby. They’re going to make sure to, you know, scare it off, or they’re going to go get it, either one.”
Recently, photographer Dixie Dixon hired a group of Alford’s goats to clear an overgrown piece of land for a photoshoot.
Dixon wanted to use the land to put in a pond for future music videos and Western-style photoshoots.
“And we had all this property, but it was so built up by brush and everything like that,” Dixon told CBS. “And I thought, ‘How do we go about clearing all this land but without destroying the cool beauty of the property.”
“We’ve been really blown away by the process, and it’s been such a fun adventure to see the goats at work doing their thing,” Dixon said.
Last summer, Dallas Water Utilities hired a team of goats in a test pilot of its new vegetation management program, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Dallas is not the first big Texas city to employ goats. In the state’s capital, over a hundred goats can be seen grazing along Lady Bird Lake, clearing poison ivy and other invasive plants.
The Trail Conservancy organization in Austin allows residents to “adopt a goat” for as little as $25 in exchange for special trail access to visit their goat in the evening.