Expand your Vegetation Management Toolbox with Livestock

Domestic livestock have natural behaviors and food preferences that can assist us in management of unwanted vegetation, while providing an income source that layers well with agroforestry and permaculture systems. Come learn about what a variety of common targeted grazing/browsing species can provide, their limitations, and their needs.

Cherrie has been applying goats for brush management since 2008, has a BS in Wildlife Ecology, a MS in Agroecology, where she studied oak savanna restoration with goats, conducted doctoral research in immunology of parasite management in cows and goats, and prion disease in mesopredators. She has mentored contract browsing businesses for over a decade, and has a 130 acre farm in southwest WI, where her and her husband manage organic livestock regeneratively and low-input. They have sheep, goats, Norwegian draft horses, hens, livestock guardian dogs, and herding dogs. In the past, Cherrie has used geese for garlic weeding, ducks for insect management, pigs for tillage, cattle for toppling brush, and has raised rotationally-grazed meat rabbits and broiler chickens.