Goat herders visit the Bella Vista Garden Club meeting
Goats can be a lot like cats, the Bella Vista Garden Club learned at its April meeting. They are smart enough to know their own name. They even know other goats’ names. But that doesn’t mean they will do what they’re told.
The guest speakers last Wednesday were Connie Rieper-Estes and Jason Estes of Greedy Goats of NWA. The tagline for their business is, “Lawnmowers for bushes.” The Greedy Goats have worked in Bella Vista in the past, but they were not invited in for the Garden Club meeting. After all, Rieper-Estes explained, they aren’t housebroken.
The Estes have owned goats for eight years, but their business is only four years old. It began because of the wild blackberries on the small farm the couple owns in east Fayetteville. The berries weren’t good to eat and the bushes, with their large thorns, were difficult to get rid of. You can’t get past the thorns to cut the bushes at the stems, Estes said. So they decided to buy their first goats.
Goats usually come in pairs, Estes told the club. They are almost always born as twins. As adults, they are herd animals and need the company of other goats.
“When you have goats, you need to do goat math,” Estes said. “One mama goat equals two baby goats.”
As their herd started to grow, Rieper-Estes was looking for a way to support them. She saw a television show about goat herders and knew she had found a new calling. Now Greedy Goats can be hired to clear everything from blackberry vines to poison ivy. Both the city and the POA have hired the goats.
There are other types of goats that are raised for different occupations, Estes said. There are dairy goats which are raised for milk that is naturally lactose-free. There are “hair goats” — often called fiber goats — that are raised for their coats, and there are meat goats. Estes calls his goats “brush goats.”
Estes said he can’t always promise how many goats he’ll bring to a job. It usually depends on how many goats he can lure into the back of his minivan. Goat herders have to be goat psychologists, he said. They have to find a way to motivate the goats to do what they want them to do. Usually, he said, food works.
Goat herds are a matriarchy, he said. If he brings goats to a job, he always has to bring along a female goat or the males will not work. The strongest, smartest female runs the herd, he said.
His goats always go home at night, he said. Even when it’s a bit of a drive to get home. They are not wild animals and need to sleep inside. They’re happiest in their own barn.
Estes said he spends a lot of time repairing the goats’ enclosure. They eat through the walls of the barn and lean on the metal wire until the bottom comes up and allows an escape. They’re good climbers because of their cloven hoofs, and he has found his goats up in trees in the past. They can also stand up on their back legs without support, and they like to climb onto the roof of a car or van.
They need protection from predators and, in northwest Arkansas, the predators are most likely to be the neighbor’s dogs. Coyotes haven’t been a problem, possibly because they respect the goats’ horns.
But the horns aren’t sharp, he said. He’s been on the wrong end of the horns before and all the goats can manage is a few bruises. They can’t use their horns to gore their victims.
When Estes travels with his goats to clear an area, he brings along a portable electric fence which is attached to a battery. Sometimes, he doesn’t even turn it on since the goats have learned what it can do. He also brings some extra fencing to protect anything the goats should not eat. For example, if there are dogwood trees inside the temporary enclosure, the goats will eat them. Evidently, Estes said, dogwood trees are delicious.
Goats like poison ivy and it doesn’t hurt them. The oil that humans react to won’t pass
through the goats’ system into their milk or their feces. Honeysuckle is also a preferred meal.
Goats have a four-chamber stomach, and the last stomach acts like a compost bin. Goat manure makes an excellent fertilizer and can be applied straight to the garden without any further treatment. But, Connie Riper-Estes warned, it often comes mixed with the goats bedding and urine, so that needs some composting.
The Estes sell manure by the bagful and offered to bring a load to Bella Vista if the members of the Garden Club order enough.
They also bring goats to petting zoos and even children’s birthday parties. It’s good for the goats to be around people, Estes said. As prey animals, they are naturally skittish. If they’re around people enough, they become more social.
Greedy Goats can be contacted at greedygoats@gmail.com.