Pasatiempo Is A Goat Track

I wonder why more courses with invasive grasses gone wild don't do what Pasatiempo is doing? Kimbery White explains how they've brought in goats to gobble up weeds in sensitive and hard to reach locations. Thanks to reader Robert for this.

"I've been looking at old photographs (from the 1920s and 1930s) of the property over the past
wo-and-a-half, almost three years that I've been here, and the ruggedness of this area, especially on the back nine, was pretty extreme ... The goal is to get back to that," said Paul Chojnacky, the golf course's superintendent.

He added that in the short time the goats have been grazing, they've cut down so much of the overgrowth that the individual peaks on the hills now can be seen as they once stood in those historical pictures.

In previous years, several members of the maintenance crew would go down into the canyons to clear out pampas grass and invasive species, but they could only cut so far into the formidable terrain.

Whatever material they could clear out would have to be hauled up out of the canyon and put into big brush piles, and another company would then have to be hired to cut it into chips.

And the innovative folks behind the goat brigade...

The goats belong to Ian Newsam and Lorraine Argo, a husband-and-wife team that operates Brush Goats 4 Hire, a 3-year-old company based out of Buellton. In addition to the roughly 170 goats, they also brought along two Anatolian shepherd dogs -- code named Killer 1 and Killer 2 -- to guard their charges from the predations of mountain lions and coyotes.

The goats -- which Newsam said eat between 5 and 10 percent of their body weight each day -- now are contained in an approximately two-acre area lined by a solar-powered electric fence, whose 10,000 volts also serve as a deterrent to any predators.

Pasatiempo is touting the goats as an environmentally friendly alternative to hiring a traditional maintenance crew, since they eliminate the need for chain saws, chippers and other heavy equipment that produce damage as well as noise.

Comments

[Vwgolfer]

During my Yale summer of Art and Music in rural Connectict -Roomed in a country house with a resident goat that lived in a van parked in a field. After a night of heavy drinking, came home and the van was gone. Damn goat gone and drove that van away! Goats are awesome.

[Tommy Naccarato]

VW Golfer,
I thought that kind of stuff only happened in Berkley! But this would perfectly explain Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Both actually tripped so bad at Yale, that one thought he was the Greek God of Love and the other thought he was president for two terms! ;)

Bravo for some incredible thinking on the part of Rent-A-Goat. Great job!

[Old Hornet]

What a great story ! Tommy is onto something. After the goats are done at Pasatiempo, send them to Washington because there's evasive species to deal with there.

[jstiles]

In Knoxville Tennessee, the city used a local service that provides goats to eat kudzu.

The goats nip the plant at the top of the soil and really almost eradicate the invasive 'weed' prevalent in southeastern US..

It is more economical than the city using chemicals, spraying, etc. as typically done. The guy brings out his goats, has a dog trained to herd and protect them, and the goats eat all day.

[Johnv]

We see these goats around the Del Monte forest area clearing brush in the woods also

[digsouth]

Great story.

Vw, Tommy..... great posts.

[Terry Hudson]

I'd rather Pasatiempo's slow golfers do the munching.

[Bob Jonz]

Another example of understanding artificial versus natural, Pard. Supers should just keep sheep and goats and lock their door to turf and ag salesmen.