They call it prescribed grazing, and it is especially effective on otherwise impossibly overgrown vegetation. It is a scalable tool that is great for steep slopes, rugged terrain and environmentally sensitive areas. We’ve cleared vegetation from many multi acre projects but most of our jobs are residential, and some are as small as a fraction of an acre. What is the number one reason for hiring our sheep? To remove the cover for mosquitoes and copperhead shakes; to get rid of the English ivy so their children or pets can safely roam.  

Sheep are fast friendly and fun. People thoroughly enjoy having the sheep and often meet neighbors and invite friends over for sheep watching. We provide whole kernel corn so clients can call up the sheep for a daily count and enhanced entertainment. It is great to have friendly sheep that come when called, especially when they happen to not to be where they are supposed to be. (more on that later)

Prescribed Grazing works by using repeated defoliation to deplete reserves of target plants until they are unable to recover- which is pretty easy with English ivy, not so much with kudzu and shrubs like privet, but still doable with some hand work and good timing. We encourage clients to expect 2 treatments to kill off most of the English ivy while needing at least 4 passes over 2 years to deplete the underground tubers of kudzu. Vines going up trees will need to be cut by hand and taller shrubs like privet will need hand work or bark eating goats to be killed. Follow up treatments usually require only half the grazing needed for the previous defoliation. Once invasive plants have been removed and where canopy shade is good, invasive plants are slow to return and a natural woodland can be enjoyed by native plants, animals and people.

Fence. Portable electric net fencing is the technology that makes grazing feasible. Ours is 164 ft per roll and lightweight enough that I can carry two rolls at a time. Fencing should be handled by the support post which are embedded every 12 ft with the net folded in between as it is picked up or put out. The electronet is as good on steep hills as your fence installer is and with the addition of independent posts as needed, is very flexible in its application. It does require attention to detail- please do not short out the conducting wires on the post spike or any other metal. Electric net is good protection from coyotes and most dogs. However, it is subject to failure… a falling limb can knock it down as can a hungry sheep with a baaaaad idea. Which I guess is what happened last summer when my flock ran amok in NW Atlanta. The Brookhaven police were called in, they apparently have a fair amount of experience with escapee goats, and they easily corralled the runaway sheep in the nearby fenced back yard of a friendly neighbor working from home. Then they wrote up the incident on their Facebook page with more sheep puns than I have ever seen in one place. With nearly 1k comments from well entertained followers, someone finally named it a “pundemic”.

Add sheep: The Stocking rate is very important. You want the sheep to finish a given area in 3 to 10 days, preferably 5 to 7. This is to prevent the sheep from selectively grazing out nutritious favorites and leaving only poor quality and toxic forage until there is nothing else. It’s ok for them to be hungry for a day but we will move or supplement with hay if it is going to be longer. On larger projects, sheep and fences are moved through smaller paddocks as needed.  

Why sheep instead of goats? Because one goat is equal to 20 sheep in trouble. Also goats are inclined to eat bark and kill trees. Sometimes killing trees, like in a detention pond, is good thing but mostly I am trying to save trees.

Again, we like our sheep to be tame and even friendly. A little corn makes life so much easier.  On more than one occasion, I have had my wayward sheep returned to their designated workplace by a Good Samaritan like this young lady, whom I have never met. Her mom sent this photo of her leading the sheep back to the neighbor’s yard they had escaped from- with a previously overgrown gap in the client’s chain link fence adjacent to their backyard.

Results: Are dramatic. With the exception of a few toxic plants including wisteria, vinca, and mohonia, cherry laurel she sheep will eat everything green within browse height converting a tremendous amount of vegetation into pelleted, organic, slow release, plant nutrients fortified with pre and pro biotics. Yes, it will grow back. What, where, how long established, weather and plant species will determine how fast. Climbing vines will need to be cut by hand but once the leaves are removed, it is much easier.

Sheep damage to native plants is a concern I have heard raised by some that are not familiar with what we do. We have seen a remarkable return of native plants once the invasive species have been removed.  Mature trees, my favorite natives can be seen this time of year choked with English ivy way up into the canopy. They are dying slowly by starvation (no sunlight to awaken buds) or sometimes quickly by wind or ice.

Prescribed Grazing Service Provider: Not a hobby. 24/7 on call. When the phone rings, it could be someone telling me my sheep are running loose in Atlanta, though it is usually spam. A service provider must have: enough animals and equipment to support the business including commercial liability insurance for the sheep and truck. It is somewhat difficult to reach the niche market of folks wanting to hire sheep but those that do are always real nice folks. Large projects are great unless they fall through so we appreciate our residential customers. Ideally we like to have 3 going in the same area during our busy season. Atl supports 6 grazing service providers that I have heard of. Retention ponds, solar sites and industrial grounds can also be managed with grazing. You may want to check out the American Solar Grazing Association.   

Contributing to naturally healthy green places for people in the city is my goal. How will young people appreciate nature, their environment and our planet if they have never wandered in the woods? It is well proven that people benefit from spending time in a natural environment. I would take it a step further and say that the converse is also true: that for urban green space, people are the keystone species as it will not survive without them loving it. So goes my effort to save the planet by getting the invasive plants out and the people into our urban woodlands using the most fun and effective tool available: Prescribed urban grazing with sheep.