Goats clear invasive weeds at Green Bay Botanical Garden

GREEN BAY – Green Bay Botanical Garden has been experimenting with using goats to remove invasive plants such as honeysuckle and buckthorn. The use of goats for weeding is not a new concept. The Green Bay Botanical Garden had decided to try it after Matt Giese of Someday Farms, had approached Mark Konlock, the Director of Horticulture, with an offer to use his goats for weed control free of charge as a test run.

The goats are fenced in with an electrical fence called No Fence. No Fence uses a collar that will play music while the goats are in their designated area. Areas where the “fence” is placed are set up with a phone app.

Goats that venture outside the fence get a small electrical shock, but the goats learn fast that when they stop hearing the music they need to go back. The fences are also very useful to help control what plants are eaten. The goats will eat almost anything they come across, so a fence that can be easily moved on a phone will help block off specific plants that the garden would want to keep.

The goats helped out in the garden for 24 days, heading back back to Someday Farms on Sept. 25.

Konlock said the goats would follow him into the woods when they saw him go to cut some of the weeds that they couldn’t reach by themselves, “Like a pack animal that likes to be by humans, they really do seem to want to be by humans.”

It is yet to be decided if the goats will come back to continue their work. Botanical Garden staff will need to evaluate the work that the goats have done and how managing the goats went.

“I think we would be willing to have the goats if we could find a sponsor to have them be here on site,” Konlock said.

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