fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Goat mowers

by Carrie Ross Jones
April 1, 2016
in Home
0
Elvis (dark) and Son of Saturn (white with big horns) at Coyote Ridge Stables in Marlboro

In this challenging economic climate, how can the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site afford to hire a dozen staff members dedicated to landscaping grounds around the clock?

David Hayes, natural resource officer for the Hyde Park estate, said meeting payroll involves little more than tossing the workers a few bags of feed every week.

Well, maybe there’s a little more to the story. In 2009, Hayes imported a dozen Nubian and Nubian-mixed goats to clear invasive species from a steep, seven-acre slope behind the mansion too sharply angled for human landscapers to deal with. Hayes recalled the goats, not thrilled with their new, unfamiliar environment, were an escape risk the first night. However, once they settled in they went to work, decimating cluttering weeds and small trees such as the Asian-origin ailanthus. Delectables favored by the cloven-hoofed crowd include Japanese barberry, black locust and the Oriental bittersweet vine; Hayes said that the flock of goats found the berry vine particularly tempting. When he pulls down a bittersweet vine, his four-footed work crew stops what they are doing and races over to grab it out of his hands.

Contrary to popular belief, the goats will not eat everything. Hayes says they are not fans of pokeweed.

Hayes admitted that the goats have no pet names, but are addressed with a reactive nomenclature, such as “Hey, get down, stupid!” and “Get off me!”

The animals, from Rhinebeck goat breeder Larry Cihanek, are mostly all dairy goats. Containment involves an electric fence, which the goats have been accustomed to since kid-hood. Males are more likely to try to bust loose, said Hayes, in search of bleating females. On the advice of the breeder, Hayes supplements his crew’s fibrous fare with 12 percent protein feed.

Dora the Devourer

Elsie Nicklin-McKay of Marlboro grew up on a large family farm which always included livestock. As a child, Nicklin-McKay became attached to one of the goats, her pet and friend Dora. Dora would graze contently until she would hear the school bus, and then bolt to the bottom of the driveway to meet Elsie.

Nicklin-McKay was always appreciative of the staunch yet comical nature of goats. “My goat was allowed to roam free around the farm because she was my pet,” Nicklin-McKay described. “Until one day my parents decided to tie her up because she had gotten so bad about eating everything, including my mother’s hundred-year-old jade plant. Well, my dog would bark at confined Dora until the goat would tangle the dog up in the rope and then butt the dog. Our dog learned really quickly that there were better ways to get entertainment.”

Many years later, Nicklin-McKay got her next goat, Kirby, at a yard sale. He came with his own goat house. He proved as endearing as Dora had been. Kirby would have lively conversations with Nicklin-McKay’s young son, bleating back in response to whatever her son said. Kirby was meant to be a worker goat to help tame the weeds on the 60-acre farm. Alas, he was more interested in the neighbor’s newly planted trees, causing a potentially serious rift in community relations.

“And then we were stupid enough to get another goat, and we got a mother goat and a baby …,” Nicklin-McKay sighed. She sold the baby and kept the mother as a milking goat. “She cleared everything in the back, but then chewed on the bark of the bigger trees, which girdled the tree, and it eventually died.” Nicklin-McKay has vowed never to own another goat again.

Goat-hacks make life easier

A debudded and gelded goat is the way to go. Horned animals can get their heads stuck in fences and feeders, and they will use their horns as weapons against other animals or people. Goats possess a unique characteristic that separates them from other types of livestock: they would rather eat brush and weeds than grass because they are browsers, while cattle are grazers. Another advantage of goats is that, unlike a bulldozer, they control brush and weeds without disturbing existing grass and soil.

The most resounding characteristic of goats is their innate stubbornness. Jenna Fisher Lass of Highland said she tried for one hot moment to go the goat route after hearing about goat mowing. She got her goats from a friend who had “extras.” Lass was disappointed. “We tried, but once they got a taste of hand-fed grapes and greens and carrots they got lazy and stopped earning their keep,” she said.

Tags: goatshome hudson valleyLawn & Gardenmowing
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

On land now owned by OSI, Brook Farm gears up for a new season

Next Post

GW parents fret as Montessori program faces cuts

Carrie Ross Jones

Related Posts

How to create curb appeal when you’re selling your home 
Home

A good petsitter will find ways to connect

September 10, 2023
Techniques for growing from seed
Home

Techniques for growing from seed

September 10, 2023
How to create curb appeal when you’re selling your home 
Home

How to create curb appeal when you’re selling your home 

September 10, 2023
Winterization tips for Hudson Valley homeowners
Home

Winterization tips for Hudson Valley homeowners

September 9, 2023
How I used AI to plan and manage a garden
Food & Drink

How I used AI to plan and manage a garden

May 14, 2023
Playgrounds offer children more than just a place to play
Family

Playgrounds offer children more than just a place to play

May 14, 2023
Next Post

GW parents fret as Montessori program faces cuts

Trending News

  • Miller Middle School approves deployment of resource officer for 2023-24 school year 1.6k views
  • Dog owners ask the town for more support at the Ulster County Dog Park 1.2k views
  • A successful Hudson Valley food co-op tells its story 755 views
  • In New Paltz, a plant store, a massage provider, and a tattooist open a store together 726 views
  • Millions of New Yorkers may suffer worse food insecurity as food stamp program hangs in the balance 618 views
  • Library for sale: desirable central Woodstock location available 599 views

Weather

Kingston
◉
55°
Cloudy
6:51 am6:40 pm EDT
Feels like: 54°F
Wind: 7mph N
Humidity: 97%
Pressure: 30.18"Hg
UV index: 0
SunMonTue
77/57°F
75/52°F
79/55°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing