273 goats eating through weeds on Wascana hill

There is a lot of kidding around going on at Wascana Hill in Regina.

Some happy four-legged creatures are on a remote goat vacation from their farm near Elbow, enjoying an all-you-can-eat buffet of greens.

Florentine Maathius, a shepherd with No Kidding Weed Management, said weeds are the goats’ favourite food.

“We are hired by Wascana Centre to restore native prairie grassland,” she said. “What the goats are doing is they eliminate invasive weeds.”

One of the main plants being targeted and eaten by the goats is alfalfa. The goats eat down the weeds before they flower and spread.

The goats will stay on the hill until Sunday, for a total of 10 days. At the end of July, the goats will return for another 10-day stint on the hill.

This is the goats’ third year coming to Wascana Hill — this year 273 goats are munching their way across the slope.

The goats’ ferocious appetite for greens gives a more natural weed-control option, compared to spraying.

“We want it to be cleared out, but we don’t want it to be bare because we still want the grasses to be able to grow,” Maathius explained. “It’s a delicate dance, basically, with nature.”

Each day, Maathius uses two Border Collies to help move the goats. The goats are herded to the overnight pen in the evening and then a new pen is set up each day so the goats have lots of fresh weeds to eat.

“They are the best employees I have,” she said.

The 273 goats come from a farm near Elbow. (Gillian Massie/ 980 CJME)