‘Goats on the Go’ will return to the Red Oak area in August

The Burlington Northern Depot and WWII Memorial Museum here in Red Oak freshened itself up for the summer by employing a new environmental weed management practice: goats.
Volunteer Maggie McQuown said that at the beginning of the summer, she noticed the bank surrounding the depot had become overgrown and a host to unwanted species of plants. However, mowing and taking care of the bank by hand was not an option.
“There were a lot of invasive species there and bad things,” she said. “And it (the bank) is super steep. It’d be really hard. You couldn’t get a mower in there.”
As the individual responsible for taking care of the bank, McQuown said she was in search of another strategy to help clean it up. Just to her luck, all pieces fell into place as Matt Vermeersch, an affiliate with a company called “Goats On the Go,” moved from Council Bluffs to her farm.
“I basically have my own branch of Goats On the Go, and I have my exclusive territory of southwest Iowa,” he said. “It’s an Iowa-based company, and I think there’s about 70 other people that do what I do with Vermeersch later went on to mention that originally, he started farming and was looking for ways to make his work more profitable. However, after discovering the company and working with it for a while, he grew to really enjoy it.
“We’ve grown a lot,” he said. “We did only a handful of acres the first year. Now, we do 100 acres a year of stuff like that.”
According to Vermeersch, Goats On the Go is most often used as a weed management technique, and many clients have been satisfied with the fact that this strategy does not use any chemical herbicides.
Following communication with McQuown and Vice Chair Jolene Crawford of the Advisory Committee, Vermeersch helped to bring approximately 30 to 40 goats to the depot.
For four days at the beginning of June, these goats got rid of all invasive species, ate weeds to mow them down and served as entertainment for the community.
“I’ve heard lots of places where they (goats) do it (weed management) in public spaces, like parks,” McQuown said. “And then people bring their lawn chairs and sit down and just watch them. It’s just like a total family entertainment.”
Both McQuown and Crawford said that these goats were a tremendous help in clearing out parts of the depot’s bank that a mower cannot reach. Vermeersch chimed in by pointing out what sets environmental weed management apart from other practices.
“To me, it’s kind of just a natural way of doing things,” he said. “Back in the day, this all used to be prairie, and there were buffalo and elk that would have these huge herds that would kind of maintain everything. Well, we can’t do that anymore.”
Overall, Vermeersch believes that by using goats, he is able to mimic natural weed management practices that were used centuries ago. He said this practice also reminds those who grew up on a farm of their childhood.
“There’s so many people that grew up on a farm or used to live on a farm or have connections to a farm,” he said. “It kind of brings them back to whenever that was, and so when I do public projects like that, it’s a really fun opportunity to kind of connect with people.”
There are a number of reasons why the depot chose to team up with Goats on the Go to tackle weed management, but McQuown said the main reason was because of this practice’s avoidance of chemicals.
“That’s really the goal, is to get it (the bank) cleaned up without chemicals so that we can then plant a permanent prairie,” she said.
Since the depot had a positive first experience with Goats on the Go, McQuown and Crawford said the goats will be back at some point in August to tend to the bank once again.
Upon the goats’ return, residents who wish to pay them a visit are welcome to do so. Information about their arrival date will be released soon.