10/17/07 Russian Olive grazing

Goats are nature's weed eaters, but they do have their limitations. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to fill you in. About three months ago, I told you about an experiment using grazing goats to initiate a successful control program on bulrush covering ponds in the Barker Ranch Wetlands Reserve near Richland, Washington. Goats combined with cattle opened up the ponds to allow herds of ducks to return and use the ponds. A new article by T. J. Burnham in Western Farmer Stockman tells of sicing the goats on another nasty problem  Russian Olive trees. A three year Sustainable Agriculture and Research Education study found goats were better at Russian Olive control than cattle and showed even the goats couldn't significantly reduce the above ground biomass, but were helpful in control measures if used over several years. I think it's pretty obvious that cattle aren't going to pay much attention to Russian Olive foliage if there is any kind of decent grazing available. Even though the goats did a good job of cleaning the trees to about six feet from the ground that would still leave a lot of untouched foliage since a Russian Olive can get big. I'm impressed the goats did that good considering their size. Chemicals provided a better control, but chemicals can't be used in some places so the goats are still a viable option in those areas. I say cross the goats with giraffes then turn those hybrids out with the regular goats and give those Russian Olive trees a high-low tackle. I'm Jeff Keane. Western Farmers-Stockman October 2007