For the past several years we have been using our "goat teams" to clear and improve abandoned land in our valley. The usefulness and environmental sustainability of using grazing livestock instead of machinery to do the same work is only now beginning to make inroads in Italy: the most eco-sustainable and cost-effective soluzione to marginal or abandoned farmland!
BLACKBERRIES AND HAWTHORNE, WEEDS, THISTLES AND BRISTLY OVERGROWTH?
We have the SUSTAINABLE solution for all of the above: NO MACHINERY OR NON-REGENERABLE FOSSIL FUELS - Contact us for an estimate for clearing off your property info@cashmeregoafarm.com
Let us solve these problems by renting you our trained cashmere goats: our goats do what they know best: browsing first the tender leaves, then the green bark, and finally the branches themselves, eliminating the most tenaceous plants, and destroying the re-growth, leaving fields, terraces and woods cleared and re-usable
Their preference for weeds, brush, undergrowth and brambles that invade otherwise good pastureland, makes them 'weedwackers with no spare parts'! Only they don't use any non-rigenerable fuel!
In late winter, when the season's supply of hay is running low and the bushes are still leafless, prunings from farms, parks, gardens, roads and paths substitute the goats' regular 'feed' - and they are greedy for these tasty treats - full of minerals and vitamins lacking in dried hay.
Unusable land? Overgrown pastures? Abandoned vineyards or olive groves? Weed-infested paths, lanes, stream banks, terraces? Impenetrable overgowth so thick in your woods that you cannot even walk through it?
Cashmere goats are useful not only to clear uncultivated, inacessable, terraced land, but also to RECYCLE large volumes of low-quality Bio-Masses that normally would be unused or burned(thus creating more atmospheric pollution) BROWSE DON'T BURN: brambles, weeds, and almost all thorny bushes branches and twigs of fruit trees, ornamentals, hedges, cornstalks, straw, etc. olive tree prunings, grape prunings, cypress, linden, oak, chestnut, etc. By further composting, mixed with the goats' bedding and manure, our recycled 'weeds' are an ideal organic fertilizer for all types of vegetation, since it has a low level of azote, and can be quickly used by the plant without burning. On our farm we collect prunings and thinnings of olive trees, vines, and various agricultural by-products The goats love these 'extras': full of tannins, minerals, vitamins that are not present in dried forage. The goats make the most of these 'snacks': eating first the leaves, then the tender green bark, and lastly the thicker, tougher bark that no other species will eat - thus, we harvest our free, tiotally organic 'fire-starters' to burn in our fireplace and wood stoves
PRESS RELEASE SEPTEMBER 2011
CHIANTI & CASHMERE – what do they have in common?!
Badia Coltibuono – always a front-runner in their field - has integrated their already sustainable management of vineyards and olive groves with yet another aspect of healthy agricultural practices: grazing animals to clear, improve and maintain their landIn line with their well-known level of quality production,
Badia has naturally chosen not just ordinary animals, but Cashmere Goats! In previous years a small herd of Cashmere Goats was used to re-claim a small parcel of abandoned, terraced olive groves, and this summer a small herd kept the lawn mowed In the pasture below the Badia.
Together with the Chianti Cashmere Goat Farm in near-by Radda in Chianti, Badia will now be using the goats to clear off over-grown terraces, improve weed-choked marginal farmland, re-cycle olive prunings and other organic waste that is returned to the soil as organic fertilizer, and to improve bio-diversity.
“Goats turn weeds into profits” Above and beyond the obviuous advantages of using ANIMALS (and not machinery) to do the same job, goats are quiet, don’t go on sick leave, don’t expect paid vacation or maternity leave, and while they’re diligently munching the blackberry bushes, are producing SUSTAINABLE CASHMERE!
An example of sustainable agricolture at it’s best and most cost-effective! You can see the Cashmere Goats at Badia Coltibuono or by visiting the Chianti Cashmere Goat Farm.
CLICK ON 'BEFORE & AFTER' TO SEE OTHER WORKS IN PROGRESS ON OTHER FARMS!
