Goats on the move after gobbling invasive weeds

By Lethbridge Herald on August 29, 2022.

Herald photo by Al Beeber The Creekside Goat Company's goat herd moves en masse at Alexander Wilderness Park Monday looking for weeds to munch. Monday was the last day of this summer's program utilizing the goats to control invasive weeds. More than 208 hectares of weeks have been grazed since the program was introduced.

Al Beeber – Lethbridge Herald   

The season of munching invasive weeds in city parks has come to an end for a herd of about 200 goats which have been employed by the City for the past four summers.

The goats, owned by Creekside Goat Company of Magrath, were used this summer in Indian Battle Park and Alexander Wilderness Park in north Lethbridge where they grazed Monday for the last time this year in the city.

The goats are specifically trained to devour weeds such as leafy spurge, nodding thistle, and if it can be found, absinthe wormwood.

A pilot project was initiated in the fall of 2018 with the full program starting in 2019, City of Lethbridge Parks Natural Resources co-ordinator Jackie Cardinal said Monday while the curious herd meandered and nibbled close to assembled media.

Robert Finck, co-owner of the company whose goats were used in “The Amazing Race” segment filmed at Fort Whoop-Up earlier this year, said the herd has three different breeds of goats. And those goats not only graze on the river valley floor but can also nimbly climb perilously steep hills, as well.

His company is one of several that provide such services across the province with Creekside doing work in cities such as Medicine Hat and Calgary, the Red Deer area, the Blood Reserve, and at private operations.

“We’re on the road from the middle of May. We have contracts through November so we have a long season,” Finck said.

His company will bid against others for jobs in the province. Other provinces and the U.S. also have companies doing grazing with much of the work being done in the U.S. as fire prevention measures.

The goats have a full-time herder who lives 24/7 with the animals through the season. The herder works with dogs including border collies – which Finck says the company couldn’t do its job without.

“We supply everything so it’s hands-free maintenance for whoever’s hiring us.”

Finck said in more open spaces Great Pyrenees dogs are used for guarding. He added fences are also used when necessary.

Finck said the company has been trying to get the goats to eat wormwood for three years and now they’re finally getting a taste for it.

“The spurge was a lot quicker than that. So some species are more palatable than others.

“It’s just a process of teaching them; they don’t eat everything, you kind of train them.”

The grazing program involves two parks twice a year, said Cardinal.

“We’re all done, they did an amazing job again as they always do. There’s no spurge left,” she said.

Cardinal said the animals have really taken to spurge, a weed they search out to eat.

Grazing is done for about seven or eight weeks, said Cardinal. City staff pick a park where the spurge is coming out first. The park where the weeds start flowering first is the one that is first targeted by the goats.

The Indian Battle Park area spans from Botterill Bottom Park to the High Level Bridge.