If you've always wanted to learn all you need to know about goats and then some, you're too late. The first-ever Goat Browsing Academy is booked up solid.
Scheduled for May 21-24 at Greenway Farms, it's a hands-on course designed to provide producers and land owners with a basic understanding of proper management of goats to control unwanted vegetation.
For those not in the know, that vegetation starts with a "k" and ends with a "udzu."
The Academy drew widespread interest and applicants from some places you may not have heard of…towns like Marshall, N.C., and Tennessee towns like Petersburg, Rogersville, Bull Gap and Eagleville. Closer to home and more familiar will be registrants from Ringgold, Chickamauga, Hixson, Soddy and Lakesite.
The Academy was "birthed" due to the success of an experimental project to fight kudzu on the western side of Missionary Ridge above the McCallie Tunnel. That initial effort by the city of Chattanooga began last fall through a contract with goat owner Maurice Beavers, who erected fencing and supplied goats to eat the invasive vine.
Right now, seven goats are chomping away to nip the kudzu in the bud during its growing season. They're accompanied by two llamas for protection and to reach higher into the vine-laden trees.
The city is planning to extend the project to the eastern slope but is going to put out a Request For Proposals (RFP) after the Goat Browsing Academy.
Jerry Jeansonne, the Public Works department's self-described "official goat dude," said, "We're going to be attending the Academy and hope to learn a lot, so that we can have a better idea about what works the best. We'll be taking notes and scratching our heads.
"When we started this last year, we didn't know diddly squat. We were shooting from the hip and in a hurry. Now, we've got some time to think about things...solar panels vs. electric fence, for example."
Mr. Beavers has signed up for the course, although he's said it shouldn't take four days to learn everything you need to know about a goat.
"I was raised with goats, and I know," he said with a laugh. "If they say all you need to do is put up an electric fence, they're wrong. If a goat gets its head part of the way through…if it gets shocked…it's going to go forward, not backward, and you're going to have some rounding up to do."
He reminisced about Dr. Ben Spangler, whose Spangler Farm is now the city-owned Greenway Farms.
"He wanted to cut corners when he got buffalo, which I got him up in Manchester. I told him that the fencing he wanted wouldn't keep 'em in. Well, I put up that fence, and he called the next morning, saying, 'Maurice, you got to help me round up these buffalo…they're all over Hixson!' I told him to h--- with him, that I'd told him so."
"You've got to do it right the first time," Mr. Beavers said. "You've got to know what you're doing."
Graduates of the Academy will gain accreditation and then be listed through the city's 311 call system when property owners want kudzu eradication the old-fashioned way.
While the city ordinance prohibits livestock within the city limits, it will allow goats to be located temporarily for the sole purpose of kudzu control.
"I had somebody saying the other day that he wanted to buy a goat and tether it in his yard," Mr. Jeansonne said, "but that's not the way to do it."
Just like tying up a dog in a yard, a goat would be vulnerable to predators such as dogs or coyotes.
It was dogs that attacked and killed three goats on the Ridge after they allegedly dug under the fence. Two donkeys, positioned there as guardians against coyotes, were as frightened as the goats by the dogs.
Mr. Beavers now has two llamas on the site, because he said they are armed and dangerous with their cloven hooves and will protect the goats against any predators.
The Academy will include subjects ranging from building a business, grazing, reproduction and nutrition to fencing and guardian animals.
It is sponsored by the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee State University Cooperative Extension and the University of Tennessee Extension.