Get 10% off your First GRAZE Service!
Welcome to GrazeCraze!
We are a Christ-centered agriculture business passionate about the outdoors and stewarding God’s creation through eco-friendly Goatscaping! We use hardworking goats to naturally clear overgrown land, and remove invasive harmful plants, brush, and noxious weeds!
We are now Serving Iredell and surrounding Counties!
What is our Mission?
Our mission is to faithfully tend to the land by offering homeowners, municipalities, and small corporations, environmentally friendly, safe, and effective ways to manage invasive plants, dangerous vegetation, and noxious weeds. While also avoiding harmful herbicides and the need for heavy equipment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please reach us at grazecrazeinfo@gmail.com if the below does not answer your specific question!
"Goatscaping" also called targeted grazing, or rent-a-goat service is an eco-friendly method of vegetation management that uses herds of goats to clear unwanted plants, brush, weeds, and invasive species by letting them graze or browse the area.
Our goats are not specifically trained to eat certain plants and avoid others, but it's fortunate that many goat favorites are common nuisance or invasive species. These include:
poison ivy, honeysuckle, multiflora rose buckthorn, autumn olive, garlic mustard, oriental bittersweet, thistle, ragweed, sericea, leafy spurge, wild parsnip, raspberry, blackberry, mulberry, vetch, and all other brush and weeds!
Goats also eat grass, but if the above plants and other brush and weeds are available grass will make up a relatively small portion of their diets.
Customers for targeted grazing include home owners, HOA’s, public parks and trail systems, landfills, power transmission companies, golf courses, corporate campuses, business parks, colleges and universities, and more.
As developments are increasingly required to use green infrastructure to manage stormwater and deliver other benefits, goats are proving to be ideal for the maintenance of these amenities.
Clear residential or recreational woodlots of low brush and irritating plants.
Open Hiking paths
Reduce nuisances from mosquitos and other pets by thinning dense cover
Improve sight lines from your home’s windows and outdoor living areas
Provide initial clearing for surveying and construction planning.
Address vegetation problems on steep slopes and rugged ground with minimal erosion
Opens ground cover to expose desirable plants and grass to sunlight and water
Create defensible space against wildfire around homes.
Conservation and Government
Reduce invasive species in prairies and woodlands
Replace mowing/burning in native grassland maintenance
Remove dangerous plants from parks and trails
Reduce flood potential in drainage channels and waterways
Eliminate spraying and mowing of noxious weeds in right-of-ways
Control weeds on steep or rocky slopes without erosion or endangering employees
Keep public facilities grounds neat without machinery
Open sight lines for surveying and prep sites for construction
Reduce biomass for firebreaks
Business and Campuses
Businesses all over the U.S. are using goats as natural landscapers on their campuses. Google, Yahoo, O’Hare Airport, San Franscisco’s Golf Course, and other innovative companies have found that goats are not only cost-competitive with conventional vegetation, management, they also convey a positive corporate conservation ethic to the public.
The need for targeted grazing has grown out of several trends:
North America is in an uphill battle with invasive plants. One estimate places the loss of native wildlife habitat to invasive plants at 1.8 million acres per year. Urban and suburban forests (on both public and private land) serve as nurseries for the spread of these plants.
Increasingly devastating wildfires in the U.S. are fueled by excess vegetation — often invasive plants. The scale is such that manual and mechanical removal alone is not practical. The greatest risk for loss of life and property is in urban, suburban, and rural fringe areas.
The public is increasingly averse to the use of chemical pesticides for controlling vegetation, which is one of the only means of control (other than targeted grazing) that can have an impact at scale. Chemicals are often inappropriate near bodies of water and occupied structures. Organizations managing public properties are increasingly the targets of lawsuits claiming damages by chemical pesticides.
Targeted grazing (typically with goats, but also sheep) controls problem vegetation without erosion, chemicals, or the disruption and burning of fossil fuels that comes with mechanization.
We are Happy you asked!!
We install temporary electric fencing to enclose the parts of your property designated for grazing
We deliver goats to your property to eat the unwanted vegetation
We take care of everything!
It's really that simple!
Want to get the process started?
Follow these steps:
Step 1: Gather some information about the property needing the goats' help.
In addition to the address of the property, the approximate size of area to be treated, types of unwanted vegetation, and a description of the terrain are all helpful. We'll also need to know how close we can get to the area with a vehicle and whether drinking water is available near the site.
Step 2: Contact us.
With the above information we should be able to give you a ballpark cost for the project over the phone or email, but we'll often want to visit your site before preparing a formal quote to give a Free Quote. We'll also answer all of your questions and help you form a strategy for attacking your unwanted vegetation.
Step 3: Sit back and enjoy the show!
Our goats will chew through your vegetation problem, pausing occasionally to loaf and ruminate. When the job is complete we'll load up the goats and the fence, leaving you with a much-improved property. The only thing that gets left behind is highly valuable fertilizer!
Do your regulations prohibit targeted grazing, or do they prohibit “the keeping of livestock animals?” If it’s the latter, is “keeping” defined? I think we can all agree that this terminology, or something similar to it, was written (and copied by myriad local governments) long before targeted grazing as a service was a thing. When that line of code was written, it surely didn’t anticipate the short-duration, professional service that is delivered by qualified targeted grazing companies today.
Your code probably also defines certain types of animal-based commercial services that are specifically permitted despite the prohibition on “the keeping of livestock.” Rodeos, petting zoos, and circuses are common ones. If that’s true for your local regulations, then the writers of the original code language clearly anticipated a need to distinguish between those types of services and the keeping of farm animals for agriculture or as pets. We recommend lumping targeted grazing among those exceptions, and judiciously administering rules for those uses that are reasonable to apply to targeted grazing.
Because each site differs largely in vegetation density and complexity, we conduct a free, no-obligation visit to your site or property and will provide you with a "Goat Quote" specific for your individual needs.
That depends on the density of vegetation and the size of the property. Once we know more about your site and your goals we'll be able to give you an estimate. Projects taking more than 10 days per acre are rare, and 4-7 days per acre is more typical. Generally, you can expect a short-duration service designed to get the job done quickly and efficiently while still giving you plenty of time to enjoy the process.
The short answer is "yes." The vegetation will eventually grow back, just as it will with mechanical cutting and herbicide treatments. How quickly it returns, and the amount of post-goat maintenance needed depend on how the goats are applied, the season in which they are applied, and the condition of the preferred vegetation in the area. We can help you formulate a long-term strategy that matches your goals for your property.
Think of goats as brush busters rather than lawn mowers. They will eat grass, but they really shine on dense weeds and brush. If your lawn is hopelessly overgrown and you'd like to get a fresh start, then goats would certainly help return it to a manageable state. Most customers, though, would not be satisfied with goats as an ongoing replacement for a lawn mower on turf grass.
Your nose is unlikely to tell you there are goats nearby. Breeding males are odoriferous, but these will not typically be on the property. Goats make a little noise, but most people find their bleats to be pleasant and certainly not a nuisance.
We use portable electric fencing and a solar-charged power source to contain the goats. This allows us to be flexible. We can concentrate goats on small problem areas, move them from spot to spot, or let them roam whole properties.
We'll check on the goats regularly and carefully monitor the progress of the grazing project, but we don't typically stay on-site constantly. Our goats often sleep under the stars on customers' properties, but depending on location and the anticipated length of stay we may take the goats home overnight or load them into our nearby trailer.
Our targeted grazing service is usually most cost-effective close to where our farm is however, the larger the project the farther we can travel and still keep cost effective. So contact us even if you think you might be too far away.
Our Goats are born and raised at the beautiful Big Holly Farms here in Iredell County. We’re proud to partner with Big Holly Farm — a wonderful, faith‑centered family who puts Christ at the heart of everything they do. They commit to raising their goats with care, integrity, love, and the highest standards of stewardship!
Our Wonderful Employees!
Get in Touch
GrazeCraze Goatscaping Services
Our Hours
Mon | 08:00 am – 05:00 pm | |
Tue | 08:00 am – 05:00 pm | |
Wed | 08:00 am – 05:00 pm | |
Thu | 08:00 am – 05:00 pm | |
Fri | 08:00 am – 05:00 pm | |
Sat | 08:00 am – 05:00 pm | |
Sun | Closed |
Enjoy as you Read!