Rent-A-Ruminant goats devour everything from poison ivy to buckthorn and can clear an acre of land in three days.
Tammy Dunakin is probably the only franchisor who has to worry about escaped goats. “It’s not a matter of if they’ll get out, it’s when,” said Dunakin of the crafty creatures who somehow find ways beyond the electrified fencing and into cities such as Seattle. That’s where Dunakin often deploys her voracious herd—and sometimes has to corral wandering employees.
Dunakin is the founder and head goat wrangler of Rent-A-Ruminant, a goat rental franchise with an eco-friendly approach to vegetation management. Instead of spraying herbicides to control weeds and other undesirable plants, hungry Nigerian Dwarf, Spanish and Pygmy goats eat their way through poison ivy, buckthorn and other invasive species one acre at a time.
Take the notoriously aggressive Himalayan blackberry, “with thorns that are like giant cat claws,” said Dunakin, and that is difficult to eradicate as it strangles native species. “The goats eat those things. And the superpower of goats is they sterilize the seeds through their digestion,” she continued. “So you can control noxious weeds and they don’t propagate, so over time the area can come back to life.”
Like cattle and sheep, goats are ruminants, with four-chamber stomachs that help them break down almost any plant material. They’re also nimble and can navigate steep inclines and other rough terrain that would be difficult for humans or machinery to access. Perhaps their best-known application is in fire prevention, as the goats chomp away at the fuel loads ahead of wildfire season in the West.
Inspired by her two pet goats, Dunakin launched Rent-A-Ruminant in 2004 from her farm on Vashon Island in Washington. She was working as a paramedic and “was really burnt out” when an “inspired, ah-ha moment” happened.
“I looked out at my goats and said to them, ‘You guys look bored; you need a job.” She’s grown her working herd to 120 goats mainly by taking in rescue animals, and created a franchise program, the first in the goat rental business, she said, in 2016.
Rent-A-Ruminant franchisees Kyle and Carolyn Carr have the largest goat-grazing herd in Texas.
Customers include state agencies, municipalities, school districts and developers, along with private landowners. Repeat customers account for roughly 80 percent of her business, and jobs are evaluated on their “munchable square footage,” she said, with a typical day rate of $1,000.
Carolyn and Kyle Carr are Rent-A-Ruminant franchisees in Texas, where their traveling herd of about 200 goats takes on jobs across the state. Kyle Carr grew up in a cattle ranching family, and he and his wife discovered Rent-A-Ruminant when they were looking for a grazing option to control greenbrier that was choking out oak trees on their 600-acre property in Brownwood.
As the first (and currently only) franchisees in 2016, Carr said it took time to build awareness and a strong reputation through pilot programs with various cities, parks departments and those with an eye toward conservation efforts, such as the Houston Arboretum. “When we started in Texas it just didn’t exist. The approach was you either hired a bulldozer or a bigger bulldozer,” Carr said.
It’s since become a full-time job for the Carrs, whose goats typically tackle 3- to 10-acre job sites. Their shaggy-haired employees can clear an acre in three days.
“We have the largest goat-grazing herd in the state of Texas,” said Carolyn Carr, and each goat has to “graduate” a training program that includes a diet transition so the animals learn to forage properly. The Carrs stay on-site in a travel trailer when the herd is working so they can monitor the progress, care for the goats and round up any escapees. The lifestyle isn’t for everybody, she said.
“You have to want to travel, you have to love animals,” she said. “The goats, you have to check on everybody every day.”
Dunakin, who is on the road herself seven months out of the year, said she doesn’t sugar-coat the business when she receives inquiries and is quick to dissuade those looking for a cute hobby. “This is not a business that will run itself,” she said. “I’m very realistic about what the life is.”
Just like the goats, prospective franchisees have plenty to chew on.