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Goat Grazing by Amazon
- malkia 12y agoWhile I was in the army (Bulgaria), one drill-sergeant was bringing his sheep to graze the area where we were situated, thus benefiting on free grass (it was everywhere)... While not a problem in general, there were some cases of ticks and mites spreading.
- yitchelle 12y agoDamm, no providers in my area for this. :-)
- arcadeparade 12y agoAt last.
- jfb 12y agoThe greatest minds of my generation, indeed.
- hyperbovine 12y agoThis is a lot better than "computational advertising" (https://web.stanford.edu/class/msande239/ https://web.stanford.edu/class/msande239/) in my book.
- jfb 12y agoFair enough.
- adrow 12y agoEarly April fools?
- gesman 12y agoApril fools joke released 1 day early.
- GhotiFish 12y agoThis is actually a thing though. They eat blackberry. No one would be cruel enough to make an April Fools joke and suggest they have a way to remove blackberry without destroying your land.
- brwnll 12y agoI don't know if this is a "thing" nationwide. But hiring/renting goats is a fairly common thing in the Seattle area as they will eat back large amounts of difficult to remove brush. They are particularly useful here because there are large amounts of protected "wetland" scattered throughout the area. This means you aren't legally allowed to bring in heavy machinery to modify the landscape. You are though, allowed to have animals do it for you.
- squidbot 12y ago+1 not an April Fools joke. I rented a few goats to clear a big section of invasive blackberry in my backyard. Goats are pretty much the only way to get rid of the horrible stuff without nasty chemicals and scratching the hell out of yourself. I'd been battling the blackberry for 10 years. Two weeks of goats over two spring seasons and the stuff hasn't come back.
- thwarted 12y agoI've used a goat service to clean up my backyard in San Francisco. There's a time lapse of it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paxvsQOAI48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paxvsQOAI48 where you can mainly just see the goats moving around.
- wallyhs 12y agoIn my area, they use goats in town along heavily traveled bike and foot paths to control noxious weeds such as knapweed and leafy spurge. Goats are reported to be more effective than chemical herbicides and don't harm beneficial bugs, fungi, and bacteria. Children love to stop and watch the goats, too.
- AdmiralAsshat 12y agoAmazon trying to undercut Google once again: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/mowing-with-goats.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/mowing-with-goats.htm...
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- dandelany 12y agoI assumed this was an early April Fools joke, but it appears to be a real service! One of many in their recently-released "home services" platform http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=dp_bc_3?ie=UTF8&node=10192834011 http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=dp_bc_3?ie=UTF8&node=10192834011
- lnanek2 12y agoSeems pretty dangerous for the goats. Where I grew up, if you let the goats free graze, they'd just eat mountain laurel, poison themselves, and die...
- dandelany 12y agoHence why the page explains in detail that a pro will first be sent to your property to determine if the goats are a good fit there.
- ashmud 12y agoBBC article: Goats fighting America's plant invasion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8883964 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8883964
- dguaraglia 12y agoThis is by far the most relevant comment. I can't count how many times I've seen goats grazing in parks and other public/private property lately. In San Francisco, no less.
- RIMR 12y agoHow fortunate! This service is offered in my ZIP code!
- Roedou 12y agoI'm holding out to see this combined with their drone delivery program.
- m_coder 12y agoIs there any way to get involved in providing this service? I didn't see any quick links.
- m_coder 12y agoI contacted them via the "feedback" form and got a call within an hour. This service is apparently offered to the Seattle region only. I wish I had a bunch of goats to go. :)