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Goats Enhance Economic Opportunities in the Loess Hills
While the invasion of woody vegetation is destroying pasture in the Loess Hills, goat browsing may provide a unique solution with multiple benefits for the area's rural communities. "Invasive species like Eastern red cedar and sumac are taking over in grazing areas due to a lack of prescribed burning," explained Julie Wheelock with Agren. "As the trees shade out the grass and ruin pastures, this threatens the area's cattle industry and the economic well-being of the Loess Hills' farming communities." Cow-calf production in the Loess Hills region has decreased 43 percent since 1974, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. The Loess Hills Alliance and Agren staff members are studying the ways goats can provide an effective method of pasture and native prairie renovation in the Loess Hills to revitalize cow-calf production and restore grasslands. "We're assessing the feasibility of a goat browsing enterprise for vegetation management with the added profit potential of meat sales," Wheelock said.
Goat browsing is a method of biological brush control that has been practiced in the southwestern United States and parts of New Zealand, Australia and Africa for more than 100 years. In February 2005, Agren received a USDA Small Business Innovation Research grant in the area of Rural and Community Development to study whether goat browsing is a viable option for the Midwest. Since June of 2005 Agren has kept 24 Boer-mix meat goats in Loess Hills pastures near Moorhead, Iowa. Two one-acre paddocks filled with cedar trees, sumac, native grasses and forbs each hold 12 goats. "We're seeing what the goats are eating and what they do to the native grasses and the invasive species," Wheelock said. "So far we've learned that they really like the sumac, dogwood, and other shrubs and have made less of an impact on cedar trees."
Agren is also studying the market potential for goat meat in nearby metropolitan communities with sizable ethnic populations, including Denison, Storm Lake, Council Bluffs, Omaha and Sioux City. Later phases of the project will examine ways to commercialize the goat browsing enterprise. One option could include one person who owns the goats and rents them to farmers for vegetation management. "For the Loess Hills area it's really important to bring all the parts of the puzzle, including grazing and fire, back together," Wheelock concluded. "Goats aren't a cure-all for managing invasive species, but they can play an important part in bringing back balance to this ecosystem
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