FlockWorks

Why Goats?

"An ecologically responsible, cost-competitive, and socially engaging alternative for managing all kinds of land in and around the Cumberland Valley, PA region. We (primarily) use goats."

The Cumberland Valley in South Central PA is a beautiful area: trout streams, valleys and mountains, rolling hillsides, historically fertile soil and lots of plant-supporting sunlight. Unfortunately, like most places, the Cumberland Valley has its share of overgrown and underutilized properties. Invasive plants, not native to the area, like multiflora rose and honeysuckle, and invasive trees, such as buckthorn and tree-of-heaven, are able to swiftly take over native vegetation and make large portions of land unusable. They also act as anchoring points for further ecological loss of adjacent properties.

By definition, overgrown properties are challenging to manage. Besides the often impenetrable vegetation, there can be steep terrain, ground bees, poison ivy, hidden hazards, and water features that make using human labor and machines very difficult and cost prohibitive.

FlockWorks is grateful to be able to offer an ecologically responsible, cost-competitive, and socially engaging alternative for managing all kinds of land in and around the Cumberland Valley, PA region. We (primarily) use goats.

To manage, and even begin to restore your land, goats are very often the best, first step in the management of overgrown land. Goats are created to function like four-legged brush-cutters and defoliate (nearly) everything from as high as 6 feet up, down to about the height of a goat's knees. Goats have no problem with steep terrain and unusual obstacles, and love thick brush that we humans usually wouldn't even consider going into. Once we fence your target areas and bring in the goats, they are focused on defoliating leaves and tender new growth of nearly everything that they can reach. It is hard to overstate what goats can do.

Goats are an especially attractive option when clearing steep, rough, swampy, or otherwise difficult areas that would prove to be obstacles and hazards to human crews with herbicides or motorized equipment.