Utah home builder uses goats as natural landscaper

WEBER COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — One Utah home building company is using goats on their properties, opting for an all-natural form of pesticide and weed management.

Nilson Homes is a company that builds homes in Weber and Davis counties. This year, they’re taking a unique approach to managing their lands before building homes- bringing goats in to take care of weeds.

Jed Nilson says their company purchases large areas of land, before starting any home developments. He said, “Part of our role in owning this land is we need to keep it free of weeds that grow too tall. For the last however many years, even before I owned the company, to take care of the weeds, we would spray chemicals.”

Nilson said he realized that the chemicals were damaging the land and the landscapers, often teenagers, who would spray them. Last year, they started mowing the grounds instead of spraying pesticide but found it too difficult to cover the large area.

Ultimately, Nilson thought goats might be able to mitigate the weed problem and began to look for a goat owner.

Quincee Rhead, a junior high student and 4H Livestock ambassador in Weber County, owns and breeds the goats being used. When she heard that Nilson was looking for goats, she met with him, and they came to an agreement that Rhead’s goats could be used for weed management on Nilson’s developments.

What started off as an experiment has reportedly grown into a successful collaboration in only a few months. Rhead’s goats have proven less damaging than pesticides but are still timely in removing plants.

The goats can remove the majority of weeds within their designated area in around a week’s time.

“We move them about every single week, we push them further and further to a new weeded area. These goats, they’re not eating all of everything,” Rhead said, “There’s going to still be some of that stuff left, like the roots. Any of the grassy ones without a stem, they’ll rip those right out of the ground…so none will grow back right there.

Any of the plants and stems still left can be removed with a tractor “a little bit easier”, according to Rhead.

Courtesy: Jeff Lambright //KTVX

While the goats have helped Nilson ensure the land is healthy for future developments, Rhead says the experience has been great for her and her goats.

“They’re definitely like one of my really close friends, because they trust me and I’m able to grow that bond with them. They can trust me to feed them and keep water in front of them and keep them healthy,” She said.

Rhead also added, “This is a great opportunity. I’ve really enjoyed working with Jed and how I can push myself to be better than I was yesterday…I just keep growing my business as much as I can.”

Initially, Rhead provided five goats. Now, eighteen goats are managing the development land and eating weeds, with plans to extend Nilson and Rhead’s partnership.

“This was our first experiment, but now that we’ve seen that it’s working, our goal is to make it, so all of our developments get the weeds maintained by goats,” Nilson said.