Golf Course Turns to Goats

An Ohio golf course is being taken over by goats. The owners said they wanted to use a natural method to maintain the green grass, so they brought in the grazing animals.

The Kensington Golf Course in Canfield has nearly 300 acres, and on any given day, one could possibly see goats roaming around the golf course. These goats aren't here to play, they're here to work.

"What we use the goats for is to ... eat all the foliage down so that we're not in there with weed eaters and gas powered motors, to basically reduce our carbon footprint on the environment," explained Sean Novotny, superintendent of the course.

And the goats only work on the naturalized areas of the golf course.

"These naturalized areas have to be maintained," continued Novotny. "The easiest way to do that and still stay natural is have two goats do it."

And for those who are wondering just what kind of work the goats do? The goats were purchased at a livestock auction in Middlefield, Ohio, for $50 each, and they have been working at the golf course since the spring. Employees say they have heard about every joke one could imagine because of the goats being there.

"I couldn't believe it when I first saw them I thought they were maybe dogs that were tied up and when I saw they were goats, I said 'why way out here,'" said golfer Frank Cwynar.

And the goats aren't just saving the golf course a lot of time, they're also saving them a lot of money.

"We've saved a couple of thousand dollars if not more just on labor costs and fuel costs just by having the goats taking care of these naturalized areas to where we wouldn't have to," said Novotny.

But, more important than saving time and money, the golf course says it would be too risky to have people try to maintain the areas where the hills are very steep.

The Kensington Golf Course is even considering adding more goats next year if this year's effort gets more successful.

During the spring of this year Google brought in a herd of goats to mow the grass on its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters rather than using lawnmowers.