Goats on the Green

A herd of hungry goats is helping The Cliffs control invasive plants—naturally and sustainably.

Kudzu is just one of many invasive plants plaguing landowners in the Appalachian region. The list seems endless: English ivy, bittersweet, Japanese knotweed, Chinese tallow, privet, and Bradford pears, to name a few. Yet kudzu, often called “the vine that ate the South,” evokes a particular kind of revulsion for the way it drapes over and smothers native flora. Kudzu can grow up to a foot per day, with mature vines reaching lengths of one hundred feet, and it is notoriously difficult to eradicate. Its removal requires manually extracting the base—a labor intensive and costly process. 

At The Cliffs at Mountain Park golf course, controlling kudzu and other invasive plants has always been part of doing business, says Superintendent Jed Fedor. As a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, the course is managed to exceptionally high environmental standards, which means using herbicides and pesticides is not an option. So when Mountain Park leadership proposed using goats as a clean and sustainable solution, Jed was immediately on board. 

As fast as kudzu grows, a herd of goats can eat even faster. Nine goats can clear four acres in just two months. By stripping the leaf foliage, the goats prevent the invasive vine from photosynthesizing, and by pulling up the roots of smaller plants, they expose larger branches for manual removal. 

“Goats will eat just about anything in front of them, except what’s poisonous,” says Gabby Saulsbery, co-owner of Mountain Goat Property Management. “They have an innate ability to sense toxins and avoid them.” Gabby and her partner, Matt Henderson, relocated to Matt’s family home in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, in 2020. Inspired by the region’s diverse landscape but unsettled by the kudzu draping the trees, they decided to take action. 

“People told us to pour Roundup on it or even douse it in diesel and set it on fire,” Gabby recalls. “But we care about the water table and didn’t want to add more chemicals to the earth.” By contrast, a herd of goats naturally fertilizes the soil with their droppings, helping to build healthy ground. “Goat manure isn’t gross, it’s very beneficial,” Gabby says. “They also grind it back into the soil with their hooves. It’s a smarter, healthier approach towards the earth.” 

In the spring of 2021, Gabby and Matt adopted two goats, Edmund and Benny. The Nigerian dwarf and pygmy goat mixes cleared their yard of invasive plants in just one season. “They worked great, so we adopted two more, Boots and Brownie— but we got more than we bargained for,” Gabby says. Both goats turned out to be pregnant, and four months later, Gabby and Matt experienced their first kidding. Boots and Brownie each gave birth to two kids on successive days, doubling the size of their herd. “Matt thought we could rent them out. He was totally sold on the idea, but I needed a little more convincing,” she adds. 

Before launching their business, Gabby and Matt spent a year loaning their goats to friends and testing their effectiveness at removing invasive plants. One particularly memorable client lived in downtown Greenville on a property overrun with English ivy. Hoping to create a shade garden, they hired Mountain Goat Property Management to clear the ivy. “In four weeks, our goats ate all the foliage and even pulled up the root systems,” Gabby says. The client hosted weekly “goat sip-and-sees,” complete with goat cheese, charcuterie, and snacks for guests to feed the goats. “It was a great experience,” she adds. 

When Mountain Park contacted Mountain Goat Property Management about working on the golf course, Matt and Gabby assessed the site. They discovered a dense tangle of kudzu, privet, and bittersweet—a nightmare for most landowners but, as Gabby described it, a “goat gold mine.” “Since Mountain Park is Audubon Certified, I knew the areas where the goats would be working hadn’t been sprayed,” she says. “So I felt really good about it.” 

The “Cornbread Gang,” a herd of nine goats, arrived in early September. Over ten weeks—with a three-week break due to Hurricane Helene—the goats transformed the landscape. “Gabby’s team moves the fences, so it’s really easy,” explains Jed. Some manual work is still required, though. “A goat can’t eat a six-inch mature vine,” he says. “But they strip away the foliage, exposing the roots, and then we go in with a machete to haul everything out.” 

“This is just the beginning,” says Jed. “Next year, the goal is to eradicate all the kudzu on the golf course.” And it’s not just The Cliffs team who love the gang; members have also enjoyed having them around. “When the goats are on a good job, they get heavier—fat and happy,” says Gabby. “And that’s exactly what’s happening at The Cliffs. The goats are happy and the members love them, and that makes us happy too.”