Google rents goats for lawn maintenance
Only in California: A Silicon Valley company has 800 goats it rents out for lawn maintenance and brush and weed control; Google rents 200 of the goats for its expansive Mountain View campus; goats come with a professional herder and a border collie
John Kenneth Galbraith’s engrossing autobiography, A Life in Our Times (1981), opens with this passage:
The southern Ontario countryside is devoid of topographic, ethnic or historical interest. It is a flattish acreage extending some two hundred miles from the Detroit River to the Niagara River in which rich land alternates with some that is sandy, ill-drained or otherwise rejected. There are no natural features worth noting. The population is ethnically only slightly more diverting; it consists in the main of Scots or, as we called ourselves there, the Scotch. Our forebears were expelled from the Highlands between 1780 and 1830 when their lairds discovered that sheep were both more profitable and, as they moved over the hillside, more rewarding to the eye.
These lines from Galbraith came to mind when we read in the official Google blog reports that the company has hired 200 goats to help manicure the expansive fields at its Mountain View headquarters. The goats were hired from a local goat renting outfit called California Grazing, and they come with a professional herder.
California Grazing that, “We currently have 800 environmentally friendly, self propelled weed eaters for weed control and brush control, that are ready for your project. Goats eat thistle, brush, weeds and other invasive plants. Goat weed control and land management with goats is not only easy on the eyes and the environment but is also cost effective.”
The Internet giant says that the goats are hired to clear weeds and brush to reduce fire hazard.
A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time. The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie. It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers.
