Posted on 09/05/2008 8:55:36 AM PDT by Gamecock
MILL VALLEY, Calif. (BP)--Four hundred goats descended on the verdant hillsides of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in July, cutting the grass as well as the seminary's costs for landscaping staff.
"We save approximately $5,000 in labor and materials by contracting with Goats-R-Us," said Robert Dvorak, the seminary's facilities management director.
Additional potential costs if Golden Gate staff did this work are possible injuries from attempting to use mowers and weed whackers on the steep terrain or potential poison oak infections, both of which could incur medical treatment and loss of work time.
The goats, which were stationed for three weeks on the steeper areas of the 120-acre campus in Mill Valley, Calif., have been annual visitors at the Bay Area seminary for the past five years. They were managed by a Chilean goat herder and two border collies as well as a portable electric fence. The three different kinds of goats -– alpine, angora and pigmy -– were supplied with water, a salt lick and all the delectable natural grasses and poison oak they could eat on about 50 acres of the campus.
Golden Gate also is swapping several of its gasoline-powered carts for four electric vehicles. "We hope to dispose of at least three of our gasoline vehicles," Dvorak said. "For one particularly old truck, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is paying us $650 to retire it."
Other "green" methods that Golden Gate employs is the use of "Orange Spray," an environmentally friendly alternative for a chemical termite spray; a recycling program that includes florescent bulbs, batteries, used oil and old paint; and upgrades to some of its boiler rooms to more efficient gas burners and more efficient pumps.
"We appreciate the opportunities for the seminary to be responsible environmental stewards of this beautiful spot in Marin County," Golden Gate Seminary President Jeff Iorg said.
Golden Gate Seminary is a Cooperative Program ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention and operates five fully accredited campuses in Northern California, Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, Arizona and Colorado.
400 Goats?
I thought this was an evangelism piece at first.
Couldn’t they have found 400 sheep instead?
I thought the goats might’ve been part of some interfaith exchange with Islam.
Sheep rip up the plants they’re eating roots and all.
Mass wedding?
There is another outfit here in Petaluma that hire out sheep to mow the vinyards in the area - “wooly weeders”
Goats are pretty popular in the Bay Area. They keep the grasses down so you can meet fire regs.
If you call, they always tell you “the goats are really busy” and you have to book some weeks out.
bookmark
Ok, ok, I get it....conserve energy, save the planet, right? But I’m skeptical because saving energy is like squeezing a balloon...it usually pops out somewhere else, if I remember my thermodynamics.
Let’s see, 400 goats, a goatherd, and two border collies. Hmmm. How do you transport them to site? I’ll bet it’s not in an SUV. Is the goatherd on staff 24/7? What about all their methane gas? Flu shots? Vet costs?
Simpler to hire a couple of summer students and riding mowers every two weeks. So what do they have against students already?
I was told by someone who raises goats that they will only eat weeds, not grass. He said if you want a really nice pasture, keep a goat. We are considering getting one to get rid of the saw vine in our woods.
Goats are much better at brush clearing.
They will eat grass, but they’d much rather eat bigger leaves. They really like stuff like blackberry bushes.
Sorry, there for a moment I was thinking ‘oh no, not another sex scandal’. Just Baptists doing brush clearance. Nothing to see here, move along.
You have to take some other factors into consideration regarding the use of goats for clearing brush:
1) The terrain - They are used on hillsides, some very steep, where mowing is not practical.
2) "Green Belts" -- The neighbors would complain about the mowing more then a few already do about the goats.
3) Seasonal - Grass does not grow during the summer on the hillsides of California. Instead it is a dried fire hazard. The goats eat the grass close to the ground, just before it dies off and we are supposed to be left with a closely trimmed hillside, as devoid as possible of tinder.
They use them regularly in this area and I think it is a great idea. Plus the goat cheese is delicious!
I think goats are just fine!.
At last someone caught the scriptural reference!
Simpler to hire a couple of summer students and riding mowers every two weeks.
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Simpler even to read the story and come up with this tidbit “The goats, which were stationed for three weeks on the steeper areas of the 120-acre campus “ is a reference to the fact that you can’t put a college kid on a riding mower in the steeper areas of the campus.
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