What We Need & What You Get

Steel City Grazers needs $40,000 for start-up costs and first year operations.  Expenses include: goats, a guard llama (yes, a guard llama), fencing, a trailer, livestock equipment, care during the non-grazing season, landscaping equipment, and a part-time employee.

Some of the perks you can receive in exchange for donating toward this campaign include:

• A hand-written thank-you note on a goat-themed postcard
  
• A "My Landscaper is a Goat" sticker
  
•  A goat-shaped cookie-cutter
• A tote-bag with the Steel City Grazers logo and slogan
• A t-shirt with the Steel City Grazers logo and slogan
  
• The opportunity to have a behind-the-scenes visit with the goats and have your picture taken with the herd
• The honor of getting a goat named after you or a loved one, or getting to choose the name of one of our herd members
  
• A complimentary one-day grazing job, or the opportunity to have a guest-goat come to your part or event
• A multi-day grazing job to get rid of those unwanted weeds
  

You will receive your perk after the campaign has ended.

The Impact

Steel City Grazers’ mission is to provide an environmentally-friendly alternative to herbicides and fossil-fuel powered machinery by using goats to remove weeds, brush, and vines.

Using goats to eat unwanted plants is a proven method for vegetation management.  Goats love brush with special preference for leaves and flowers, leaving targeted plants unable to photosynthesize or go to seed.  The majority of seeds that do go through the goats’ digestive tract come out nonviable.  The goats’ hooves also help trample the unwanted plants, without disturbing the soil.

There are many benefits to using goats over conventional landscaping techniques.  Grazing does not involve noisy machinery or toxic herbicides.  Goats can go where people and machinery can’t, such as steep slopes or areas of dense vegetation. They are particularly fond of plants that humans particularly hate, like poison ivy and thorny brush.  To top it all off — the goats leave behind free fertilizer.  And it’s fun!

Business Philosophy

• Steel City Grazers does not support the overuse of synthetic herbicides for vegetation control.  Using goats is a natural alternative.
  
  
• Steel City Grazers is a proponent of urban agriculture.  Having working goats on display in the city is a way to show support for, and start a conversation about, keeping livestock in urban settings.
  
  
• Steel City Grazers believes in the ethical treatment of all animals .  Each goat is raised with love and care.  The health, safety, and contentment of the herd are our top priorities. 

Background

The Steel City Grazers owner has always had a fondness for goats, but it wasn't until her Peace Corps service in Zambia that she got one of my own.  When she returned to to the US, she started Arlington Acres Farm, a micro-farm in the city of Pittsburgh.  It has two Nigerian Dwarf goats used for dairy, as well as chickens, beehives, and crops.

Arlington Acres had been approached several times with requests for weed removal services and event rentals.  With only two goats and a focus on dairy, Arlington Acres has not had the capacity to fulfill these needs.  However, these requests planted the seeds of a possible future goat grazing business. 

Through the work of Tree Pittsburgh, excitement for goat grazing started to grow in 2014 when an out-of-state grazing company was brought in for a one-day demonstration in Polish Hill.  Grow Pittsburgh continued the momentum by bringing interested parties to the table in hopes of supporting goat grazing in Pittsburgh.  It then seemed fitting that Pittsburgh’s only contemporary urban dairy goat farm expand to become Pittsburgh’s first goat grazing business. 

Risks & Challenges

Steel City Grazers' biggest challenge is getting funding in place and sourcing the animals to begin operations for the summer of 2015.  The Steel City Grazers' owner has experience with raising goats and has developed a business plan for the endeavor, so the business is in a good position to launch, pending funding. 

If Steel City Grazers does not reach it's goal of $40,000, the funds received will still be put toward the business, though alternate funding may need to be sourced, and the start of operations may be pushed back a couple of months.

Other Ways You Can Help

Think your friends might be interested in this campaign?  Please consider sharing the link on social media to help get the word out.  Head over to Facebook and "like" our page as well!  Thanks for your support!