Goats on the Go affiliate in Minnesota supplies weed management and leisure to shoppers – Agweek

AUSTIN, Minn — Like most of their shoppers, Gus and Ann Maxfield love goats. 

The Austin couple runs a goat grazing enterprise which is an affiliate of Goats on the Go , a nationwide community of independently-owned goat grazing companies that gives weed and brush management with goats.

The couple has 120 goats that they break up into herds of 40. Gus Maxfield mentioned they bought goats to wash up their very own land a yr earlier than he retired from the boiler enterprise he owned.

“I began this goat factor to attempt to management all of the buckthorn on the 50 acres I’ve in Brownsville, which was the worst infestation of buckthorn I’ve ever seen in my life,” he mentioned.

After seeing how profitable goats have been at clearing the buckthorn, Maxfield mentioned they found Goats on the Go and determined so as to add to their herd and be a part of as an affiliate.

He mentioned that electrical fencing is used to maintain coyotes, canines and different predators away whereas the goats are grazing, and all they need to do whereas goats are on a job is examine on them as soon as every day to ensure the fence continues to be working and that they’ve sufficient water. 

“We haven’t any points with them so long as they’ve meals and water and all the pieces’s good, however when their meals supply begins to get low inside their paddock, the grass is greener on the opposite aspect of the fence, and that may be a problem,” he mentioned.

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On the morning of Oct. 17, Maxfield drove his truck onto the golf course of the Austin Nation Membership, the place a herd of goats was on day two grazing an overgrown part of the course. 

“For buckthorn management, it doesn’t damage to graze actually late like this,” mentioned Maxfield. “As a result of that is the one factor that is received inexperienced leaves on it, and just about all the pieces else is coming off.”

He mentioned buckthorn is often the very first thing the goats will go after. 

“They’re not grass eaters,” he mentioned. “I imply they’ll eat grass, however they gotta be fairly hungry.”

A number of the advantages that come from goats grazing are cleared woodlots of low brush and aggravating vegetation, opened mountaineering paths, decreased nuisances from mosquitoes and different pests by thinning dense cowl, improved sight strains from dwelling home windows and out of doors dwelling areas and extra.

Maxfield mentioned the one limitation the goats have is that they will solely attain about six toes, however he mentioned they do get inventive typically. 

“They’re going to get on every others backs, or climb up bigger timber and get all the pieces they will attain,” he mentioned. 

He mentioned they solely use meat goats, as a result of they’re “larger, bulkier and so they eat extra brush.” He mentioned the goats eat absolutely anything that nothing else will eat. 

“They eat thistles, wild parsnips, garlic mustard, buckthorn — all types of invasive species,” he mentioned. 

The very best components the Maxfields have with their herd is placing 40 goats to at least one acre for about one week, which is sufficient time for them to clear it.

He mentioned in all probability about 80% of their enterprise is in Rochester, which is about 40 minutes from Austin.

“There’s a whole lot of very nice properties in Rochester which have huge tons, and it’s actually fairly as a result of it’s constructed into the hills, however they haven’t any strategy to preserve it,” he mentioned. “In order that’s the place the goats are available in — does not matter about how tough the terrain is.”

However Gus Maxfield mentioned that there are some shoppers who’re strictly in it for the leisure. 

“We had one man say after we dropped the goats off that he was going to get a pack of beer and watch them,” he mentioned. “Individuals could have events the place they’ll hang around and watch the goats.”

Ann Maxfield mentioned renting the goats has been a studying curve for them, however it’s been an fulfilling one. 

“There’s a lot to it that we did not comprehend was there, and it has been enjoyable to study it,” she mentioned. 

She mentioned the toughest a part of the expertise thus far was coping with points associated to kidding out the goats, which she mentioned was “overwhelming.”

Enterprise has solely picked up for them since they started renting out the goats. 

“This yr is the busiest that we have ever been,” she mentioned. “Individuals are understanding how a lot good conservation a chemical free strategy to brush management can actually be for them.”

Now that it’s winter, the goats will likely be put into mainly a feedlot scenario, mentioned Gus Maxfield. And so they all have a job lined up for subsequent yr. 

“What we do with our goats is simply lease them out,” mentioned Gus Maxfield, who mentioned due to that, some goats really feel like pets to them. “We do not promote them to the meat market or something.”