Goat Grazing by Amazon

[dandelany]

I assumed this was an early April Fools joke, but it appears to be a real service! One of many in their recently-released "home services" platform http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=dp_bc_3?ie=UTF8&node=10192834011

[AdmiralAsshat]

Amazon trying to undercut Google once again: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/mowing-with-goats.htm...

[ashmud]

BBC article: Goats fighting America's plant invasion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8883964

[dguaraglia]

This is by far the most relevant comment. I can't count how many times I've seen goats grazing in parks and other public/private property lately. In San Francisco, no less.

[Roedou]

I'm holding out to see this combined with their drone delivery program.

[lnanek2]

Seems pretty dangerous for the goats. Where I grew up, if you let the goats free graze, they'd just eat mountain laurel, poison themselves, and die...

[dandelany]

Hence why the page explains in detail that a pro will first be sent to your property to determine if the goats are a good fit there.

[gesman]

April fools joke released 1 day early.

[GhotiFish]

This is actually a thing though. They eat blackberry. No one would be cruel enough to make an April Fools joke and suggest they have a way to remove blackberry without destroying your land.

[brwnll]

I don't know if this is a "thing" nationwide. But hiring/renting goats is a fairly common thing in the Seattle area as they will eat back large amounts of difficult to remove brush.

They are particularly useful here because there are large amounts of protected "wetland" scattered throughout the area. This means you aren't legally allowed to bring in heavy machinery to modify the landscape. You are though, allowed to have animals do it for you.

[wallyhs]

In my area, they use goats in town along heavily traveled bike and foot paths to control noxious weeds such as knapweed and leafy spurge. Goats are reported to be more effective than chemical herbicides and don't harm beneficial bugs, fungi, and bacteria. Children love to stop and watch the goats, too.

[m_coder]

Is there any way to get involved in providing this service? I didn't see any quick links.

[m_coder]

I contacted them via the "feedback" form and got a call within an hour. This service is apparently offered to the Seattle region only. I wish I had a bunch of goats to go. :)

[malkia]

While I was in the army (Bulgaria), one drill-sergeant was bringing his sheep to graze the area where we were situated, thus benefiting on free grass (it was everywhere)... While not a problem in general, there were some cases of ticks and mites spreading.

[yitchelle]

Damm, no providers in my area for this. :-)

[arcadeparade]

At last.

[RIMR]

How fortunate! This service is offered in my ZIP code!

[adrow]

Early April fools?

[jfb]

The greatest minds of my generation, indeed.

[hyperbovine]

This is a lot better than "computational advertising" (https://web.stanford.edu/class/msande239/) in my book.