Removed from Systematic Goat Grazing
Fire mitigation
Watershed management
Comparing cost
Production ag vs regenerative ag
Goal setting v chasing symptoms
Goat Graziers for Fire Management and Watershed Stability
Goats reduce fuel for the fire, eating the grass, brush, and tree undergrowth. They create a perimeter, before a fire or during an active fire, stopping the burning flames in its tracks.
Goats also break up the hydrophobic layer, a layer of seared soil that hardens and prevents new growth once the fire has been extinguished; typically human labor is required to break it up with pickaxes or other big machinery, which gets expensive. The hay brought in to feed the goats replaces the straw, which is generally brought in to prevent landslides until new growth develops the roots necessary to keep soil in place.
Hoof action creates stability of the soil, as herd hooves massage the land and compact the soil just right. Once seeded, goat feces and urine fertilize and irrigate the soil and return it to optimal chemical conditions for speedy growth.
You get all of these long-term sustainable benefits combined with the cost of goat grazing. Goats save taxpayers and property owners billions of dollars per year in losses and labor costs required to prevent and fight the fire and to restore the land.
And don’t forget–we mitigate our healthcare costs when we prevent illnesses that are caused by pesticide and herbicide use.
With all that taken into consideration, herbicides cannot possibly be the cheaper solution for agriculture or land management. We’ve simply got to hear this message differently.
Herbicides are not cheaper.
And they are not necessary. There is another way—with prescription goat grazing. We must educate elected and appointed officials to hire professional goat graziers with their weed and fire mitigation budgets, instead of hiring herbicides.
+++
Ancient wisdom for a modern world – Systematic goat grazing
Production Ag vs. Regenerative Ag
Soil should be teeming with life, but it is not. We are killing soil microbes that keep us healthy with chemical production farming, industrial toxins, and development. We are in a mess.
Grazing is described when an herbivore eats herbaceous plants. Domestic livestock, cattle, sheep, horses, graze pastures in production agriculture. Prescription Grazing is the art and finesse of managing all components in a defined area to achieve a defined goal for the landscape. We associate the word prescribe/prescription to medical problems.
A very unhealthy person may need an antibiotic to kill an internal or external bacterial infection, or an iron supplement to augment weak blood, or blood pressure medication to adjust the pressure in your arteries and veins. These products brought in from the outside are taken at exact times, with exact spaces of time in between doses.
Systematic – or prescription – goat grazing would be diagnosing an imbalance above (plant species, bare ground) or below ground (pH, bacteria: fungi ratios), i.e., internal or external, and bringing a set number of goats for a defined timeframe during a specific season to cause a shift on the landscape.
And you may ask yourself, “How did we get here?” = Production Ag
The exploitation of resources in production Agriculture
How can systematic goat grazing fix the landscape problems?
It is easy to see that as our exploitation-driven culture three centuries ago replaced free-roaming buffalo with cattle, and horses (fewer sheep) in production agriculture settings.
Industrial revolution practices, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and hormones sped up the bloated commerce to explosions of $dollars$ as every component was commoditized, traded, made, promised, fattened, sold, or lost with mind-less disregard for the landscape.
++++
Foraging animals are used to eat vegetation in various levels of impact, by managing the duration of grazing time and density of animals per plot.
We can purposely apply selection pressure to certain plant species because we know what that animal will eat by 1st choice, 2nd, 3rd … last choice, and avoidance.
All grazing animals choose their preferred diet when given a choice of foods.
We can think very simply of putting plants on a spectrum with trees, bushes, brush, thorns, woody stem species far on one end and grass (skinny leaf) far opposite to the other end, with lower growing, softer, non-woody forbs (broadleaf plants) in the center.
Diet preference
Cattle and horses are ‘grazers’ and basically choose all grass to eat when given a choice; sheep eat a grass/forb middle point diet; goats are ‘browsers’ and are far opposite to cattle and horses. Prescription implies that there is sickness, dis-ease, or imbalance on the land and something needs to shift.
It’s easy to see that production agriculture practices where domesticated herbivores are penned in a barbed-wire fence bordered cells, would eat their first choices of plants first. The avoided plants and last choices are left, i.e., cattle like all grass, so would eat grasses over and over again, shorter and shorter, and not touch their last plant choices or the avoidances.
Production agriculture needs cattle to keep getting as fat as possible as fast as possible, so they would not be asked to lose weight and walk off the fat looking for few and far between grass plant survivors. Thus, a pasture develops a weed problem while less and less grass can survive.
Our solution? Bring in the goats. Goats have exact opposite diet preference to cattle and let them eat by choice, whatever the problem plants and weeds are, which reallocates pressure away from grasses, that results in grasses becoming then the better competitor.
Plant species’ growth habits, styles, and nutrient and water needs from the soil change throughout seasons of the year, and cycles of growth. Animal behavior and nutrition needs also change during these seasons and cycles. Knowledge and experience in different settings, different watersheds, different seasons give a grazier an advantage to decide when to prescribe.
+++++
How can systematic goat grazing fix the landscape problems?
We are a service business. We are not in production agriculture that fattens goats and sells them for meat at the end of the growing season. Goatapelli Boot Camp emphasizes a business built on trust and respect among and between the land, the landowner, the goats, the dogs, the wildlife, the neighborhood where we work, the local culture, and us.
Your support makes a difference.
There are many ways you can change lives through the Goatapelli Foundation. Whether you are making an online donation, preparing a more detailed legacy giving plan, volunteering your time, or if you have something else in mind, you can be sure that you are part of something big—something extraordinary that will continue to support the community for generations to come.
Our Foundation team can guide you on how to best make an impact to match what is most important to you.
Contact our office at info@goatapellifoundation.org
* * *
Soil should be teeming with life, but it is not. We are killing soil microbes that keep us healthy with chemical production farming, industrial toxins, and development. We are in a mess.
Grazing is described when an herbivore eats herbaceous plants. Domestic livestock, cattle, sheep, horses, graze pastures in production agriculture. Prescription Grazing is the art and finesse of managing all components in a defined area to achieve a defined goal for the landscape. We associate the word prescribe/prescription to medical problems.
A very unhealthy person may need an antibiotic to kill an internal or external bacterial infection, or an iron supplement to augment weak blood, or blood pressure medication to adjust the pressure in your arteries and veins. These products brought in from the outside are taken at exact times, with exact spaces of time in between doses.
Systematic – or prescription – goat grazing would be diagnosing an imbalance above (plant species, bare ground) or below ground (pH, bacteria: fungi ratios), i.e., internal or external, and bringing a set number of goats for a defined timeframe during a specific season to cause a shift on the landscape.
And you may ask yourself, “How did we get here?” = Production Ag
The exploitation of resources in production Agriculture
Diet preferences
How can systematic goat grazing fix the landscape problems?
It is easy to see that as our exploitation-driven culture three centuries ago replaced free-roaming buffalo with cattle, and horses (fewer sheep) in production agriculture settings.
Industrial revolution practices, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and hormones sped up the bloated commerce to explosions of $dollars$ as every component was commoditized, traded, made, promised, fattened, sold, or lost with mind-less disregard for the landscape.
Nature is dangerously out of equilibrium. We have lost stability in our water, freshwater sources, and food with nutrition.
+++
Foraging animals are used to eat vegetation in various levels of impact, by managing the duration of grazing time and density of animals per plot.
We can purposely apply selection pressure to certain plant species because we know what that animal will eat by 1st choice, 2nd, 3rd … last choice, and avoidance.
All grazing animals choose their preferred diet when given a choice of foods.
We can think very simply of putting plants on a spectrum with trees, bushes, brush, thorns, woody stem species far on one end and grass (skinny leaf) far opposite to the other end, with lower growing, softer, non-woody forbs (broadleaf plants) in the center.
Diet preference
Cattle and horses are ‘grazers’ and basically choose all grass to eat when given a choice; sheep eat a grass/forb middle point diet; goats are ‘browsers’ and are far opposite to cattle and horses. Prescription implies that there is sickness, dis-ease, or imbalance on the land and something needs to shift.
It’s easy to see that production agriculture practices where domesticated herbivores are penned in a barbed-wire fence bordered cells, would eat their first choices of plants first. The avoided plants and last choices are left, i.e., cattle like all grass, so would eat grasses over and over again, shorter and shorter, and not touch their last plant choices or the avoidances.
Production agriculture needs cattle to keep getting as fat as possible as fast as possible, so they would not be asked to lose weight and walk off the fat looking for few and far between grass plant survivors. Thus, a pasture develops a weed problem while less and less grass can survive.
Our solution? Bring in the goats. Goats have exact opposite diet preference to cattle and let them eat by choice, whatever the problem plants and weeds are, which reallocates pressure away from grasses, that results in grasses becoming then the better competitor.
Plant species’ growth habits, styles, and nutrient and water needs from the soil change throughout seasons of the year, and cycles of growth. Animal behavior and nutrition needs also change during these seasons and cycles. Knowledge and experience in different settings, different watersheds, different seasons give a grazier an advantage to decide when to prescribe.
+++
How can systematic goat grazing fix the landscape problems?
We are a service business. We are not in production agriculture that fattens goats and sells them for meat at the end of the growing season. Goatapelli Boot Camp emphasizes a business built on trust and respect among and between the land, the landowner, the goats, the dogs, the wildlife, the neighborhood where we work, the local culture, and us.
+++++
Removed from Soil page
Between 50 and 70 percent of the Earth’s cultivated soil has lost its carbon stock. Soil absent of carbon cannot feed plants. Without carbon, critical microbes die.
Microbes are important to plant health. Microbe makes nutrients and minerals available to plants, impact plant performance, promote plant growth, provide a layer of protection against pathogens, trigger or dampen stress responses, and assist in environmental remediation.
The more diverse the soil microbiome, the fewer plant diseases and the higher the yield. Without microbe, soil dies. Dead soil becomes dirt. Food and native vegetation cannot grow in dirt. Food chain interrupted.
So what can we do about it? How do we reduce CO2 in the atmosphere? Sequester it in soil. How do we sequester CO2 in the soil? With prescription goat grazing.
Prescription goat grazing is a 100 percent natural technology that sequesters CO2 in soil, addresses climate change, reduces carbon footprint, reverses land devastation caused by humans, and restores land in the process. It’s a win-win.
Scientists are now looking into soil carbon sequestration as one of the most effective solutions for climate change.
* * *
The problem is sometimes poor soil having no organic matter that can support good growth. We want to make the grass the best competitor and stress the weed at every turn.
Weeds are symptomatic of a problem.
Weeds tell you about the soil; they are an indicator of soil health. With each problem, there are particular weeds that characteristically appear. Overgrowth of weeds typically means there is a problem with soil fertility. Weed management is directly tied to the fertility of the soil. Weeds are often indicative of overabundant or insufficient soil nutrients.
Goats help with this problem because everything they eat is then recycled as a fertilizer and laid back down on the grasses. As the goats graze, they trample in the fertilizer, feeding the soil with life.
Grazing goats are an effective control method.
The use of goats to control invasive plants is preferable to other biological, chemical, or mechanical methods. Goats can go to where land is in need of rejuvenation. The “goats eat weeds” cycle rehabilitates exhausted and abused land. Our goats have taken tens of thousands of acres of devastated, barren, parched (even radioactive!) land and revitalized it.
Studies show goat grazing to be effective in reducing, preventing, containing, suppressing, or eradicating densities of invasive plants and weeds. The State of Colorado Noxious Weed list.
We take our migrating herd of carefully evolved goats to lands in need of wellness. Our specialty is providing non-toxic land care and land rehabilitation throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Today, we’ve rehabilitated land working in sixteen states—including Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Hawaii, and counting.
+++++
Removed from War on Weeds
Environmental impact of agrochemicals
The biggest agricultural challenge continues to be weed management. Farmers, ranchers, businesses, governments, landowners, private land managers, and caretakers are in a relentless, never-ending war with weeds. Year after year they fight the same fight and use the same weapons—they bring in the chemicals.
Agriculture is currently one of the most significant contributors to annual carbon emissions, contributing about 25 percent globally.
In 1928, then-Agriculture Secretary William M. Jardine wrote that “every farm is a chemical factory.”
“Herbicides (used to control weeds) account for 90 percent of the pesticides. As agriculture has grown and industrialized, farmers have come to rely on pesticides for large-scale practices such as mono-cropping—growing one crop in great quantities, season after season, on the same land. Despite the widespread recognition that pesticides are harmful to human and environmental health, our industrial agricultural system depends on their continued use.” —FoodPrint.org
The industrial model of agriculture relies heavily on herbicides for weed control. This system of weed control amplifies the neglect of soil health, increases the loss of plant diversity, and depends on the heavy use of herbicides.
It is creating a perfect storm for disaster.
Agricultural chemicals are used extensively throughout our food system. On any given day, tank after tank of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, nematicides, and more are spilled, sprayed, poured, dumped, or dusted. We’re told they’re safe, cost-effective, and improve quality and yields.
You can’t pour toxic chemicals on the ground for years to kill the weeds and think it’s sustainable.
Conventional monoculture row crop farming strategies have become a vicious cycle. In 2019, about 2 million tons of pesticides were used globally. Worldwide pesticide usage in 2020 has been estimated to increase up to 3.5 million tons. State of Colorado Noxious Weeds list.
Heavy chemical use degrades the soil. We need a fresh approach to weed management. It’s time to do things differently. Weed mitigation cannot be sprayed away. We know that. We know we cannot keep jumping from chemical to chemical hoping for solutions. Dramatic change is needed.
+++++
The biggest agricultural challenge continues to be weed management. Farmers, ranchers, businesses, governments, landowners, private land managers, and caretakers are in a relentless, never-ending war with weeds. Year after year they fight the same fight and use the same weapons—they bring in the chemicals.
Agriculture is currently one of the most significant contributors to annual carbon emissions, contributing about 25 percent globally.
In 1928, then-Agriculture Secretary William M. Jardine wrote that “every farm is a chemical factory.”
The industrial model of agriculture relies heavily on herbicides for weed control. This system of weed control amplifies the neglect of soil health, increases the loss of plant diversity, and depends on the heavy use of herbicides.
+++++