Fighting Fires With Goats

Fighting Fires With Goats LIVESTOCK Miscellaneous Kathy Voth Livestock for Landscapes knows how to use goats to fight fires Her CD handbook “Goats For Firesafe Homes in Wildland Areas” contains practically everything you need to know about goats fire and prescribed grazing “It’s the result of 6 years of research on the use of goats for reducing fire danger ” says Voth “We wanted to give Bureau of Land Management BLM managers information to set up grazing for fire control ” Voth was with the BLM in 1994 when a bad fire killed 14 firefighters in Utah where she worked While helping families and the local community build a memorial trail she began thinking about ways to reduce the risk to firefighters in wilderness areas She and a fire reduction expert set up a firebreak grazing trial using goats on a nearby National Guard base Ironically a grass fire started during the grazing trial “It burned right up to the pens and stopped ” recalls Voth “It worked so well that the base commander still keeps goats for fire control ” Voth says one of the keys to using goats in fire prevention is to let them do the work In one research trial local firefighters cut trees and brush to speed the process In a second plot the goats did all the work “When a fire came through it stopped where the goats had mob grazed but kept burning where the firemen had worked ” says Voth “The goats had trampled the dead vegetation into the ground ” The instruction handbook/CD which she sells for $25 plus S&H covers setting up firebreaks how to manage goats for vegetation reduction contract examples and suggestions cost estimating tools where to offer the service and business development assistance for prescribed grazing services For those who want grazing done but don’t want to deal with goats visit her website It carries a list of individuals and companies by state who offer grazing services As good as goats are for reducing fire danger she has found them difficult to control even with electric fence While she still endorses using them Voth who also trains cows to eat weeds thinks she has found a better fire fighter “I discovered that cows trained to eat weeds will start eating brush as well ” says Voth “They do as good a job as goats and stay inside a one or two wire fence long after goats would have escaped a much better fence ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Livestock for Landscapes 6850 West County Road 24 Loveland Colo 80537 ph 970 663-6569; kvoth@livestockforlandscapes com; www livestockforlandscapes com

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