Goats Better Than Mowers for University of Michigan Golf Course

[Dogfish Head]

Following is an excerpt from The First Cut, an e-newsletter from the GCSAA. Subscribe here.

TEN GOATS ARE THE NEWEST EMPLOYEES on the maintenance staff at Radrick Farms Golf Course in Ann Arbor, Mich. The University of Michigan course hired the help of Boer goats from a local ranch to munch on invasive plant species like poison ivy, buckthorn and honeysuckle.

GCSAA member Dan Mausolf, superintendent at Radrick Farms, says the course is the only one in the state employing goats for vegetative management. The goats save the course on labor, said Paul Scott, general manager at the club.

"We're already busy maintaining the playing surface. We don't have time to attack the woods. We're stewards of the property."

Scott added that the goats are better than mowers. "We're letting nature control nature," he said.

Radrick Farms, an 18-hole championship course, is a member of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf.


Source: Goats Better Than Mowers for University of Michigan Golf Course

 

[ejdahl21]

You start putting goats and sheep on golf courses and Rock will never clear the 18th with less than 100 strokes ever again.