Weed-eating goats annual visitors to Lethbridge river valley parks

Calgary Herald

3 days ago

Article content
Getting goats to like the weed leafy spurge takes a bit of patience, says herder Trent Cahoon.
Article content
Starting earlier this month, Cahoon has been looking over a herd of 205 goats that's been munching on the weed in two Lethbridge river valley parks.
Article content
Article content
When Cahoon took the herd to the Blood Reserve earlier this year, he says the goats took four to five days to get hooked on eating leafy spurge, which he says the animals initially don't like much.
Article content
Article content
'It's like kids with broccoli — you give it to them enough and then they say it's alright and start asking for it,' says Cahoon.
Article content
Article content
And now leafy spurge is the first thing they'll go for.
Article content
The southern Alberta Hutterite colony where Cahoon gets the goats from ends up with fat goats that will fetch a good price at market, he says.
Article content
A 2013 City of Lethbridge report on the state of the river valley health identified leafy spurge as its top problem weed, says Jackie Cardinal, the city's parks natural resource coordinator.
Article content
'It's a little tricky to deal with, because a lot of our river valley parks are quite naturalized. We don't want to go in and use a lot of chemicals; we don't want to go and mow large areas of it.'
Article content
Article content
The situation left the city at an impasse, but in 2018 Robert Fink of the Creekside Goat Company suggested the city try goats. The city was impressed with the results of a pilot program that fall, and the next summer started a targeted program focused on reducing leafy spurge.
Article content
Ever since, the City of Lethbridge has been using goats to cut down on weeds. Goat were used in two parks for the first five years, and last year they started going to a third park.
Article content
Left unchecked, leafy spurge takes over native plants, chocking out the grass and all the forage the city wants to grow.
Article content
'There will be fields of yellow — and not the good kind of yellow,' says Cardinal.
Article content
By using the goats, the city targets removing 80 to 90 per cent of the flower head during the first round. The goats make a second round in mid-August, as the leafy spurge does regenerate.
Article content
'It's really cool to see before and after when they've been through a park. Before, plumes fields of yellow everywhere, and afterwards it's like the yellow was never there,' says Cardinal, who'd like to see the program expanded to more of the city's river valley parks.