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| Jim Cormier and two of his co-workers. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI News photos) |
By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI News staff
PLYMPTON — It didn’t take long for the new landscaping crew to
butt heads. Soon after their boss dropped them off at the worksite, a tussle
began. The alarmed homeowner called Jim Cormier to tell him his crew has been
fighting for 45 minutes and blood has been drawn.
A relaxed Cormier told his concerned client, “Don’t worry.
They’ll work things out.”
The company’s vice president was even less concerned when
another client called to tell him a member of his crew was giving birth. By the
time Cormier arrived — and he admitted he didn’t exactly rush to the scene —
the newborn “had been licked clean and was standing on its own.”
Two years ago the Kingston resident was unemployed and looking
for work. He never imagined his job search would lead to him managing 48 goats.
Before the new business partners knew it, they were buying
equipment and getting more goats — naturally and from a local breeder.
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| The Goatscaping Co. grew out a chance meeting between its two co-founders at Colchester Neighborhood Farm. |
Using goats as an eco-friendly way to control invasive species
has been gaining in popularity. In western Massachusetts, the Amherst-based The Goat Girls offers brush-clearing services, and
nationwide homeowners, businesses — the Google campus in California, for
example — and parks, such as the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.,
are incorporating conservation grazing as a way to bypass fossil fuel-powered
machinery and/or toxic herbicides to curb unwanted plant growth.
The Goatscaping Co. rents goats by the week, to homeowners and
businesses looking to eliminate poison ivy and control brush growth.
A crew of
four adult goats will clear a quarter to a third of an acre in a week.
Goats will eat just about anything they can reach, such as
Asiatic bittersweet, buckthorn and Japanese knotweed. Goats don’t like to eat
grass, and milkweed and rhododendrons are poisonous to them, but they do
consider poison ivy, poison sumac, blackberries and wild grape leaves tasty
treats.
“If there’s a big tangle of thorns, they will chew right through
it,” Cormier said. “Thorns aren’t a problem for them. They aren’t finicky
eaters. They will chew right down to the roots.”
Before Cormier unleashes his crew of four-legged weed-whackers
on an overgrown patch of land, he checks the site for milkweed and
rhododendrons, and makes sure there are no pits or rebar hidden in the
greenery.
After the goats have finished chowing down, the low ground cover
they have fertilized and left behind, such as grass, clover and moss, will take
over and help keep poison ivy and brush growth from returning, according to
Philbrick. In fact, when they are done devouring a targeted area, the only trace
of stocky vegetation left are woody stalks that are a quarter-inch or thicker,
she said.
The cost to rent a crew of 4-6 goats is about $600 a week,
according to Philbrick, the company’s president. Once on site, Cormier sets up
a 4-foot-high electric net fence powered by a solar battery. The 300- to
400-square-foot fence can be set up in any configuration, and on virtually any
type of ground. The fence keeps the goats in and coyotes and stray dogs out.
Cormier also sets up a plastic shelter within the fence to protect his hardy
crew from the elements.
The only maintenance Cormier and Philbrick ask of their clients
is to provide their hungry grew with fresh water daily, and feed the goats some
of the grain and minerals they leave in a locker beside the fence. Clients can
put the supplements in the goats’ food dish or have some fun and feed the crew
by hand.
While the goats will tussle with each other to establish
dominance, especially a crew that is new to each other, Philbrick said they are
extremely friendly to people and won’t bite, kick or headbutt anyone with two
legs. Two ecoRI News staffers who recently visited company headquarters, at a
263-year-old farm, can vouch for their friendliness, and nosiness. They also
were quite talkative during the hourlong visit. And, not surprisingly, the most
handsome one was named Frank.
This year, The Goatscaping Co. used eight crews and was booked
throughout much the season, which is basically May 1 through Oct. 31, depending
on the weather. Next season, the partners hope to have enough business to keep
13 crews busy. In 2013, the company employed five crews. The company hopes to
be profitable by 2015.
The Goatscaping Co.‘s customers are evenly split between
homeowners and businesses, such as the Cohasset Golf Club, Black Rock Country
Club in Hingham, Planet Subaru in Hanover and the Xfinity Center in Mansfield.
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| Goats aren’t finicky eaters, just don’t let them eat rhododendrons or milkweed. |
Colchester
Neighborhood Farm —
owned and operated by New England Village, which helps adults living
with intellectual disabilities to experience dignified, enriching lives through
participation in various programs — allows Goatscaping to use some of its
pastures and has permitted Cormier build a temporary barn on the property. The
organization’s clients enjoy visiting with the goats and helping Cormier care
for them.
The company’s goats — they all have names, from Skylark and Juno
to Denny and Dalia — range in size, age and attitude. The oldest is 8-year-old
Twilight — goats typically live in the range of 8-15 years — and Diamond and
Hemi are most certainly crew bosses.
Nearly half of the 48 goats are Alpine, while the La Mancha,
Kaghani and Saanen breeds also are represented.