Watch: The goats let loose - Rescued animals to clear Cork school's wasteland

Scrubland will make way for a wildflower meadow to boost biodiversity

Students Simone Pacifico checking on the goats from Billy's Rent a Goat which are helping to maintain an area in a land management project at Coláiste Chríost Rí, Cork. Picture: Denis Minihane.

Rescued goats will visit a Cork school this week to munch their way through briars and bindweed to clear wasteland for a wildflower meadow.

West Cork man William Walsh and his team of goats are tackling the overgrowth at Coláiste Chríost Rí in Turner's Cross in Cork City while educating pupils about sustainable land management.

William Walsh, owner of the goats. Picture Denis Minihane.

Mr Walsh established Billy’s Rent A Goat to clear land and invasive species without using toxic chemicals or heavy machinery.

He mostly uses young male rescue goats which were otherwise destined for slaughter.

“It gives male goats another purpose. Instead of putting them down after birth,” he said.

“We’ve taken animals out of the ecosystem, this is putting them back in to manage the land.

“And animals get people involved. They’re a great way to connect people back to their environment.

“My long-term goal is to change people’s perspectives on how to deal with the environment and come up with chemical-free solutions for land management.

“The main reason I’m doing this is so that kids can have a better future. We can’t keep going the way we’re going."

Students with teacher Éamonn Ó Ríordáin with William Walsh, owner of the goats. Picture: Denis Minihane.

Teacher Éamonn Ó Ríordáin, who is environmental officer in Coláiste Chríost Rí, enlisted Mr Walsh’s help to clear steep scrubland at the school to make way for a wildflower meadow to boost biodiversity.

“There’s a strip of about half an acre on a slope and goats were the perfect solution to clear it,” Mr O’Riordain said.

“It’s also an educational tool. Classes can come out and ask William questions about the goats and about managing land in an ecologically friendly way.

“So it will educate the students about how goats will help manage an ecosystem.” 

Mr Walsh said that the idea for his goat grazers germinated when he was in a forest in east Cork and saw to his horror that people were spraying herbicide to kill bindweed next to a river estuary.

Research led him to a woman in Canada using goats to safely clear land and riverbanks instead of chemicals or machinery.

He then discovered that goats were being used all over the world to safely and efficiently clear invasive species and overgrown land.

After years working in the food and pharmaceutical sectors he was suddenly made redundant and he used that as an opportunity to radically change his life.

Break time for two of the goats. Picture Denis Minihane.

He studied sustainable horticulture and permaculture at Kinsale College of Further Education and won an entrepreneurial award last year from the Education and Training Board (ETB).

His business plans were stalled last year due to Covid, but he launched Billy’s Rent A Goat this summer instead.

“You have to grab the goat by the horns,” he said.

“We are using goats as they go where people can’t, they eat what most animals won’t eat and they leave behind nothing but fertiliser while digesting and sterilising over 99% of seeds.

Tadgh Howe pets one of the goats. Picture: Denis Minihane.

Machinery and chemicals can’t replicate the same effect goats have on the land, it is nature's intended way.

“What we do is targeted grazing — that means the native plants are protected from the goats, using solar-powered goat fencing, while they feed on and clear the non-native and invasive plants.” 

Mr Walsh now wants to restore the environment “one goat at a time”, recovering space for native wildlife, keeping waterways healthy, helping soil ecology, and increasing biodiversity.

Cork’s councils have controversially used toxic weedkiller Roundup, containing poisonous Glyphosate, a substance deemed ’potentially carcinogenic' by the WHO.

Mr Walsh said he would happily work with both councils to provide a non-toxic land maintenance solution instead.

Japanese knotweed is dealt with by goats internationally but bureaucracy is slowing the adoption of the practice here, he said.

An added bonus of goats grazing land is the wellbeing boost it gives nearby humans, he said.

“You could just stand there for hours looking at the goats. It’s a very calming experience.

“We all need something to put a smile on our faces.”