City Grazing

As you can see from this childhood photo of me (Yes, this is really a photo of me!), I have been fond of goats for many years. I have lived in big cities my entire life. Perhaps due to this, I’m fascinated by farms and, especially, farm animals.

It is out of the ordinary to drive down the street and see live animals roaming in someone’s yard - it really makes you pull over to check things out. I just had to find out why in the world these goats were there. It turns out that putting goats in your yard is actually a service called City Grazing.




City Grazing is a San Francisco-based goat landscaping business. An environmentally friendly solution to weed control, who’s business rents out goats to clear public and private land. Whether you have acres or an overgrown backyard, their goats would be eager to eat your weeds and aid in fire prevention, naturally. While they are not out on the job, the herd lives on pasture in San Francisco’s Bayview district, between the SF Bay Railroad and cement recycling plant.

Goats grazing is an ecologically sound practice that eliminates the need for toxic herbicides, chemicals, and gas-powered lawn mowers. They clear brush in areas that people or machines cannot easily reach, like steep slopes or ditches. The goats can help restore soil fertility by providing organic fertilizer.




Why Choose Goats?

• Goats can eat weeds in terrain that is difficult or impossible to mow – steep slopes, between rocks, etc.
• Goats can eat plants that are hard to remove by hand, such as poison oak, thistles and blackberry.
• A managed goat grazing plan can reduce and potentially eliminate species of weeds and invasive plants from an area.
• They eat the plants that fuel wildfires, improving firefighters’ ability to manage and stop fires.
• Goats only need one tool: an appetite! There are no chemicals, mowers, chainsaws, or machines. This means no fuels are used and no emissions are generated, and you don’t have the liability of a worker injuring his or herself with dangerous equipment.
• There is no hauling or dumping of debris. They automatically recycle your plant mass into fertilizer, and work it into the soil with their hooves.




These goats are the cutest weed eaters I have ever seen!

What do you think? Would you skip the yard work and hire goats to come and graze in your yard?