Iowa City Public Schools use goats to clear brush

IOWA CITY -- When Duane Van Hemert was faced with the task of clearing brush from around some Iowa City Community School District property, he didn't have the manpower to do it.

Thankfully, he found some goats to do the job.

No kidding.

The school district hired Goats on the Go of Ames to provide 36 goats who ate about two acres of unwanted vegetation around a wooded area at Shimek and Penn elementary schools this week. Van Hemert, director of facilities management for the school district, said he had the idea of hiring goats for the project after reading an article about the service.

'I just threw it out there, ‘Let's use goats.' Everyone thought I was kidding,” Van Hemert said.

The district paid $2,575 for the service, according to Goats on the Go co-owner Aaron Steele.

The goats are mostly adult females and kids. The animals were fenced in the area with the brush for safety of the students.

Van Hemert needed the brush and weeds around the playground at Shimek cleared because he is looking into expanding the playground. He also said it's important for the land around a school to be cleared for visibility so students outside are safe and secure.

Aaron Swailes, regional subcontractor and representative for Goats on the Go, said the goat service is both good for the environment and educational for students who go to the elementary schools. He said because the school district chose to hire goats, it avoided the use of chemicals like herbicides near its playgrounds and its students received some agriculture and environmental education as well.

Savannah Conlee, principal at Shimek, said each of the students had time to learn about how goats eat and why they can be useful. She said the students were excited about the goats - even naming them during recess - and got to pet one named Peaches during the educational session.

'It's been a very positive experience. It's certainly been an educational one, as well as a fun one,” Conlee said.

Van Hemert said he hopes to use the goats again for other projects and placed the request on the school board's agenda. He said the next project for goats might be to clear 4 acres in June at the Theodore Roosevelt Education Center or TREC.