Eat, Bleat, Repeat: Montana goat company helps landowners reduce wildfire fuels

SHERIDAN, Mont. — As wildfire season approaches, a local business is offering landowners another way to clear grass and weeds from their property.  

Goats can offer an eco-friendly way to manage land, whether it be regular real estate property, agricultural land or grazing land for other livestock, explained Ohana Goats owner J.K. Kinsey. Through goat droppings, they can also provide nutrients back to the soil. 

“They reduce the fire fuels; they eat the noxious weeds. There are many things that's going on there that a typical eye can't really see,” he said. “If you spray chemicals on noxious weeds, it can damage the microbes that are in the soil. And so, the goats regenerate all that." 

Kinsey started Ohana Goats about five years ago after using goats to clear weeds on his own property in southeast Montana. He said a rancher he met in Arizona inspired him to begin the work after sharing a family loss the rancher connected to herbicide exposure. 

“When I got back home, I started buying goats, you know, to mitigate those weeds and you know, I kind of felt a message from God that that was the path I needed to go,” Kinsey said. 

Kinsey explained that goats can help in places where machinery is not a good fit. He said hidden rocks in some areas can make equipment difficult to use. 

The goats have spent part of May on a property in Sheridan, Montana, cutting down grass and noxious weeds. Their paddock moves to a new acre of the property roughly every three days. 

The business has expanded each year, and they even work with the U.S. Forest Service. Kinsey took the goats to the Grand Canyon last year, where they spent three months eating wildfire fuels. While Ohana Goats typically works on property of five acres or greater, their goal is to continue working on large pieces of land. 

it's the wildland-urban interface projects that are close to the national forests and the mountains. And, you know, they're wanting to try to get these fire fuels reduced around homes in those areas," Kinsey said. 

The Ohana herd plans to keep working through wildfire season to help landowners protect their property in Montana. During the winter, Kinsey plans to move the herd south to continue their work. 

The process for working with Ohana Goats is pretty simple, Kinsey said. Those interested can reach out through their website. Typically, a landowner can send pictures and videos, and the company will provide a timeline, cost estimate, and an estimate of what results will look like.