Why Houston is employing army of goats to 'mow' around town

A goat named Shelly, on loan from Rent-A-Ruminant, eats overgrown vegetation at the Houston Arboretum on May 3, 2022. The same company will provide goats for the newHouston Public Works program.

Following a successful trial run, the City of Houston is planning to expand its use of goats—yes goats— to act as landscapers in detention ponds and drainage easements.

The decision was made last week during a meeting of City Council's Transportation, Technology and Infrastructure Committee. Houston Public Works initially launched the test program in the fall of 2021, and have since found that the use of grazing animals is less expensive and more ecologically friendly than hiring humans with mowers and weed eaters.

A similar program has been used by the Houston Arboretum for the past two years to maintain overgrown vegetation at the park.

Muhammad Umer Khan, supervising engineer for Public Works' transportation and drainage operations division, told city officials last week that renting the goats costs about $2,500 for an acre of land, versus paying $8000 for a group of humans using landscaping equipment. Both the City of Houston's goats and the Arboretum's come from a Brownwood, TX-based company called Rent-a-Ruminant.

The goats are also more agile than humans, able to tackle thick underbrush and gain footholds on sometimes-steep drainage ditches. They're also less susceptible to reactions from plants that may be toxic to humans, such as poison ivy.

As part of the pilot program, which started in October 2021, 150 goats were "hired" to graze a two-acre detention pond along Northline Drive in North Houston. The goats grazed for about 12 hours a day for 10 days. They were given water and shelter for sleeping, according to Click2Houston, and were protected by an electric fence and monitored full-time while they were working. A second test run took place earlier this year in southwest Houston. Pending groundwater sampling results, Public Works hopes to make the grazing program permanent. Officials have said they do not think the goats caused any adverse effects.

In fact, just the opposite. Not only are the goats eco-friendly, but both Arboretum and city officials have said that Houstonians have become fond of seeing the animals.

"The neighborhoods love them because they are cute and make almost no loud noise during construction," Khan told the committee.

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