| Galisteo Dam Project :Being Green Making Green Eating Green |
Years ago the idea of using goats to reduce weeds in fire prone areas and also in other areas where invasive or otherwise problematic vegetation had overgrown, was beginning to catch on. The internet reflected a growing interest with many projects being started and energetically promoted. Then around the same time the U.S Army Corps of Engineers announced their plan to remove invasive weeds (primarily tamarix) from the dam basin on either side of the river. The local community didn't want herbicides used in their proximity (our own farm is only 3 miles south of the dam). So we studied the current research and projects in New Mexico and elsewhere ultimately deciding that using goats rather than herbicides would be a viable undertaking and good for all involved. We have provided the Corps the opportunity to "Go Green".
The start of the project fall 0f 2006.
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| July 2007 |
July 15: The goats arrived over two days in three pickup truck loads. The queen goats, along with some others were in the first load. Bort, the big herdsire, came in the last. The first load came by way of Camino Cerro Chato--Highway 14--County Road 22--briefly stopping at the Santo Domingo gas station to fuel the truck up--Interstate 25--Highway 16 to the Galisteo Dam. They were the only goats to ride the pavement, everyone else came the back way with lots of bumps and some swaying at the end. In the first few months the goats camped in a slightly different place each night. Always leaving tell tale droppings, wet spots and shallow bowls where the ground was shaped for a goat next to a goat or alone nearby.
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The Galisteo dam basin occasionally back fills when sigificant rainfall occurs upstream in northern New Mexico. The flood happenend in the night and was mostly over by first light, though the changed flow of the river continued to flow into the early afternoon. A week or two before the big flood event, big storms struck in the night blowing over fence loose in mud over rock. I was out with Zuli and Regal turning the herd back in the middle of the field between torrents. The goats were stubborn and Zuli becoming frusrated when finally Regal ran toward home barking, came back and barked gathering the herd behind him and led them home again. This was one of the first experiences I'd have with the giant white dog that guards bravely and also herds confidently with quiet flourish. When the bottom floods there is still some sections of the field that can be accessed by goats, though we often just stay up high to avoid muddy clay filled feet or pothles of quick silt which suck your feet into the earth, where to struggle is to loose ground. The soil is different all over. Sand and silt and clay have all washed through and settled here and there, tree limbs collecting here and there,
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| December 2008 |
The Galisteo Dam has provided us with the perfect training to perfect our Management intensive Browse techniques. In our second year of the project the goats are getting their role down. They have come to truely love tamarix, russian olive and other weeds plentiful in this system like their old favorites tumbleweed, ragweed, the occasioanl elm and mountain mahogany, They are also getting into our routine. They have a shelter in their overnight pen where their water and minerals are also kept. We have learned over the course of the project that in order to work effectively on the more difficult plants like Cocklebur, Tamarix, and Rabbitbrush the herd must first feed on more protein rich plants. Also in many places the variety of vegetation present is very small and little can be consumed even if pressed. In the morning they are released, to browse under the supervision of one herder on horseback, predator control dogs Regal and Yolo, and herding dogs in training Zuli and Buck. In pens having more diversity they are concentrated morning and afternoon with a water break in between.Then, they are usually walked on horseback to their day-pen where they spend the morning returning to camp midday to drink and ruminate before going out in the afternoon. Last year we moved camp to where they were working, the goats staying in one pen. But neighbor's dogs in the night were a problem. This year we have remained closer to the dry level and have been glad as the summer has been rainy in places upstream and the dam had hours of three foot standing and then moving water. It has gone very well; closer and more frequent management of the herd has united them as a herd more strongly as well as to me and Zuli has been able to learn to move the group as well as individuals. This has been a very challenging year. The predation was worse. Though the problem dogs from last year stayed home, coyotes and possibly cougar were a consistant source of losses. The fences stayed up for the most part, but suddenly in autumn cuts through the wires here there and everywhere appeared making containment a daily maintenance issue. On the other hand the herd has grown larger and has become quite fond of tamarix and russian olive and now, through our supervised free browse sessions, supplement their diet well enough to consume large quantites of chamisa on the side of the rocky dam.
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| July 2009 |
July 28 :Rain has been consistant this year. Few big downpours but a frequent enough female rain to keep the weeds growing. We have eatn the entire place once, half of it twice and 20 or so acres three times. The ragweed is eight feet tall, the tamarix towers above that with lambs quarteras, tumbleweeds and grasses intergrown below. As much density as there is in the field the goats are continuing to take apart the tangled mess of plants thinning the ragweed, topping everything, stripping the bark from the trees, breaking the larger diameter tamarix from plowing over them like tanks. Russian Olive may be their favorite feed, given the diversity of a few other plants the goats will devastate Russian Olives even 15 feet tall. They carefully pick leaves standing up in the tree and strip long pieces of bark before knawing on the remainder like a plant eating predator.
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August 2009 This is the first year that we have had the diversity and density of feed that we need to eat the tamarix (except in one large corner of the field that is still a tamarix monoculture) . We have learned to size the pens appropriately so that the herd moves every other day. They respond readily to the call "NEW PEN!" We are in one of the times during the year that the tamarix is not as palatable. Spring and fall it is popular and during the many cycles of blooms in early summer. Our herd has never been so fat and happy. Alpine boer cross does are producing more than their six month plus kids want or can fit in with all the feed they get.
Cashmere/Spanish/kiko/? cross goats strip Russian olive bark
Remediating to the east and back again one month later.
October 2009 Goats are dimpling the hills allowing for footholds for the local seed.
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