LAUREL — Gone are the days of pushing a lawn mower around now that there's a new lawn maintenance business in Laurel.
Groovy Grazers uses goats to maintain land in a cute and sustainable way.
Laurel couple Morgan Prather and Andy Cole started the business after they bought a few Nigerian dwarf goats.
"We have 20 acres out in Laurel and I was mowing every week for three hours," Prather said.
The couple has a herd of 14 goats. With each goat eating about three pounds a day, the herd can maintain an acre per month.
“We want to just reach out to the community and kind of bring a style of eco-mowing,” said Prather.
It's something they've been doing for one of their clients, Clint Horton, during the winter season when the weeds on his property were up to his neck.
“The grass and stuff that’s over here. The whole place was like that back here, so they ate a lot of it,” Horton said.
Not only adorable but effective in more ways than one.
“When they come in, their little hooves are actually aerating the top of your soil so they’re walking around and just kind of adding aeration. When they graze, they’re also fertilizing,” said Prather.
Goats are also a natural weed killer. Their digestive systems render the seeds useless.
“It’s not causing any damage to your lawn ‘cuz you’re not spraying it, you’re not adding in nutrition that’s man-made,” Prather added.
Horton says that as a business owner, it's a big time saver.
“For me, it’s been awesome ‘cuz I don’t have 10 hours to mow the pasture and all these other fields,” said Horton.
He actually purchased three goats from Groovy Grazers because he enjoys them so much. Prather and Cole are hoping to give that enjoyable experience to the rest of the state.
“We’re going to try to show up and show up at multiple parades in town. We’re also looking at an Earth Day event. We’re also doing birthday parties,” Prather said.
She also offers hoof trimming to clients who might already have their own goats. This non-traditional lawn service's pricing is on par, if not a little cheaper, than a traditional mowing company.
An Air Force veteran, Prather says Groovy Grazers is ultimately for the community. She's hoping to offer more than just lawn care in the form of seedlings and eggs from her chickens at home.
“We do offer heavy discounts for veterans, elderly, teachers, first responders. I mean really we just want to give out as many discounts to people helping the community,” said Prather.
