Rent-A-Goat program

Listen to this radio story (MP3 download) or read below.

Radio interview source: Tammy Dunakin, owner, Rent-A-Ruminant

Goats need a job. It's their nature to work at something. We use ours out to nurse orphan sheep, and they do well. Right now, we only have two, but they earn their keep in the pasture by mowing down anything that resembles a plant.

Tammy Dunakin puts her goats to work by hiring them out. She has dozens of the four-legged eating machines that she rents to cities, counties, contractors, and landowners to clear their land of brush and weeds. Depending on the location, she charges $800 per day. Her "traveling roadshow," as she calls it, hauls a minimum of 60 goats to a site.

"It generally takes 60 goats about three to five days to clear about a quarter of an acre -- which is 10,000 square feet -- and that's relatively dense vegetation," Dunakin says. "Sometimes it can take a little longer, sometimes it takes a little less, it just depends. If it's really steep, that can slow it down, or if it's really dense and there's a lot of debris that they have to get around."