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Only in California…Someone smart said “hey, we have all these fire-hazard brush lands around homes and apartments that are hard to clear in an ecologically sound manner – let’s let critters graze there!” Quieter than weedwhackers and brush-hogs, more ecologically sound, and what the hey – when your grazers are inefficient, dinner on the hoof. Been working for people for thousands of years, right? Well…only California could screw that up, and screw it up they have.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge fuel source. If it was left untamed, it can grow very high. And then when the summer dries everything out, it\u2019s perfect fuel for a fire,\u201d said Jason Poupolo, parks superintendent for the city of West Sacramento, where goats grazed on a recent afternoon.<\/p>\n
Targeted grazing is part of California\u2019s strategy to reduce wildfire risk because goats can eat a wide variety of vegetation and graze in steep, rocky terrain that\u2019s hard to access. Backers say they\u2019re an eco-friendly alternative to chemical herbicides or weed-whacking machines that are make noise and pollution.<\/p>\n
Companies typically put about one herder in charge of 400 goats. Many of the herders in California are from Peru and live in employer-provided trailers near grazing sites.<\/p>\n
Companies have historically been allowed to pay goat and sheepherders a monthly minimum salary rather than an hourly minimum wage, because their jobs require them to be on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But legislation signed in 2016 also entitles them to overtime pay. It effectively boosted the herders’ minimum monthly pay from $1,955 in 2019 to $3,730 this year. It\u2019s set to hit $4,381 in 2025, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations.<\/p>\n
The changes could raise the monthly salary of herders from about $3,730 to $14,000, according to the California Farm Bureau.<\/p>\n