Invasive vines
Kudzu, English ivy, wisteria, honeysuckle and oriental bittersweet pulling down trees and fence lines.
Goatscaping & targeted grazing · North Carolina
Targeted grazing for serious vegetation problems.
We bring a working herd to land that machinery can't reach — kudzu, English ivy, poison ivy, honeysuckle, briars and heavy brush on slopes, woodlots and commercial acreage across central and western NC. The herd is held with portable solar-powered netting or Nofence GPS collars, whichever suits the ground, and guardian dogs come along where a site calls for them.
Custom grazing plans · Residential through commercial acreage
100+Goats in the working herd
2023Grazing full-time since
Any sizeHomes, businesses, farms & land
- Locally owned, Elkin NC
- Residential & commercial
- Custom grazing plans
- Solar & GPS virtual fencing
- Guardian dogs where a site needs them
What we're called for
The ground nobody else wants to take on.
Steep, wooded, tangled, or too close to water and structures for a machine. Goats get in, work it down, and leave the soil intact.
Steep banks & slopes
Grades that are unsafe for mowers and skid steers. Goats climb them without rutting or eroding the hillside.
Wooded understory
Brush, briars and saplings choking the understory — cleared without taking down the canopy you want to keep.
Waterways & pond edges
Shorelines, stream buffers and treelines where herbicide drift is a problem and equipment would tear up the bank.
Neglected acreage
Properties that have gone years without maintenance and need to be opened back up before anything else can happen.
Chemical-sensitive sites
Watersheds, schools, conservation land, organic farms and homes where reducing herbicide use is the whole point.
Why goats
Browsers, not mowers.
Goats are browsers by preference — they go after shrubs, vines and broadleaf growth before they touch grass. That's exactly the wrong-way-round appetite that makes them useful on a property that has a brush problem rather than a lawn problem.
- They reach what equipment can't
Slopes, gullies, rock, wet edges and dense understory — no ruts, no compaction, no erosion scar left behind.
- They cut herbicide dependence
Grazing replaces or reduces spray on sites where drift, runoff, kids, pets or livestock make chemicals a liability.
- Repeat grazing wears plants down
Removing top growth again and again forces a plant to spend root reserves it can't easily rebuild. That's how suppression actually works.
- The herd scales to the job
We size the herd and section the work to the acreage, density and timeline — not the other way around.
Straight talk
What grazing does — and what it doesn't.
We'd rather set the right expectation up front than sell you a result we can't produce. Here's the honest version.
What goats do
- Remove above-ground vegetation — leaves, vines, tender stems and bark on browse-height growth
- Open up sight lines and access on ground that was impassable
- Reduce fine fuels and dry brush around structures
- Weaken persistent invasives over repeated grazings by draining root reserves
- Work without soil disturbance, fuel, noise or spray
What goats don't do
- Kill roots. One grazing does not eradicate kudzu, privet or ivy — anyone telling you otherwise is overselling
- Remove standing trees, stumps or heavy woody stems (that's where chipping and mulching come in)
- Give a manicured finish — grazing is vegetation management, not landscaping
- Guarantee nothing regrows. Established invasives need a multi-season plan
Field index
Vegetation we target.
A working list of what our herd browses on North Carolina properties. Persistent invasives are marked — those are the ones that usually need more than one grazing to stay knocked back. English ivy stays green all winter, so ivy work carries on through our quieter months.
KudzuPersistent invasive
Poison ivyGoats are unaffected
Poison oakGoats are unaffected
English ivyPersistent · winter work
Japanese honeysucklePersistent invasive
Multiflora rosePersistent invasive
Chinese privetPersistent invasive
Autumn olivePersistent invasive
WisteriaAssessed case by case
Oriental bittersweetPersistent invasive
Blackberry & briarsNative, aggressive
Smilax (greenbrier)Native, aggressive
SumacWoody browse
ThistleBroadleaf weed
RagweedBroadleaf weed
Sericea lespedezaPersistent invasive
Garlic mustardPersistent invasive
Saplings & woody browseTo browse height
Have something not on this list, or plants you specifically want protected? We identify both during the site assessment and fence or cover anything worth keeping.
Results
Real properties, real herd, real conditions.
Every photograph on this site is from an actual Eco Grazers project or from our own herd. This is the same roadside bank in Dobson, photographed from the same spot two months apart.
Dobson, NC · August–October 2024. Drone photos taken from the same position, two months apart.
How a project runs
Six steps, start to finish.
You don't need to prepare the site, provide power, or be home while the goats work. We handle setup, containment, monitoring and removal.
Request an estimate
Tell us the address, rough acreage, and what's growing. Photos help. We'll respond with next steps and a visit time.
Site assessment
We walk the property: vegetation type and density, terrain, access, water, fencing needs, plants you want protected, and your goals.
Custom plan
Herd size, grazing sections, containment, estimated duration, logistics and whether mulching, chipping or debris removal belongs in the scope.
Setup
We deliver the herd and set the boundary — portable solar-powered netting, or Nofence GPS collars where netting isn't practical. Cameras and guardian dogs are added when a site calls for them.
The goats work
The herd browses the targeted vegetation down. On large jobs we section the property and move fencing forward as each area is finished.
Completion & follow-up
Equipment and animals come out. For established invasives we'll recommend a repeat-grazing schedule so the gains hold.
Containment
Ground that can't be fenced, we can still graze.
Most projects run on portable solar-powered electric netting. But netting has to be carried in, set up and moved — which quietly rules out a lot of ground: long ridgelines, rough terrain, wet edges, and sites where hauling fence in isn't practical.
We also run Nofence GPS virtual fencing. The herd wears solar-powered GPS collars, and the grazing boundary is drawn on a map in an app rather than built on the ground. As an animal nears the line, its collar gives an audio warning; it learns the boundary during a training period before any of this goes to work on a customer's property.
For you, it means three things: we can take on sites where physical fencing was the obstacle, we can adjust the grazing area in minutes instead of a day of fence-moving, and we know where the herd is at all times.
It isn't magic — it needs cell coverage on site, and there's a margin of error of a few yards on any GPS boundary. Where a hard physical line matters, near a road or a property edge, we still use netting, or both together. We pick the containment to the site.
Who we work for
A half-acre of poison ivy or a hundred acres of overgrown ground.
Homeowners & small acreage
Residential
If your back bank has gotten away from you, or there's poison ivy where the kids play, grazing is often cheaper and far less disruptive than clearing it by machine.
- Overgrown banks, ditches and treelines
- Poison ivy, oak and English ivy near the house
- Wooded back lots and creek edges
- Small acreage that's gone unmaintained
HOAs · Property managers · Municipalities
Commercial & institutional
We work at acreage scale with written scopes, sectioned grazing plans and monitoring — the documentation a board, supervisor or procurement office needs to sign off.
- HOA common areas, buffers and detention basins
- Municipal, parks and conservation land
- Development sites, waterways and steep mountain ground
- Farms, watersheds and chemical-restricted sites
Behind the herd
A hundred-plus head, two guardians, and people who live alongside them.
The herd lives on an 88-acre farm between projects — pasture, woods, riverbank and hill ground. The animals are cared for personally, not contracted out, and the grazing side of every project is run by the same people who look after them day to day. Merry and Denali, our Great Pyrenees, go out with the herd on projects where predator pressure or isolation calls for it.
Where we work
Central & western North Carolina.
We're based in Elkin and cover the Triad, the Yadkin Valley, the foothills and the Lake Norman region most weeks — and we travel further when a project justifies it. Whether there's a charge for the visit depends on the drive and the job, and you'll know before we set a date.
Winston-Salem NC
Clemmons NC
Statesville NC
Mooresville NC
Lake Norman NC
Huntersville NC
Elkin NC
Mount Airy NC
Hickory NC
Wilkesboro NC
Also serving Yadkinville, North Wilkesboro, Jonesville, Dobson, King, Kernersville, Lewisville, Advance, Troutman, Taylorsville and surrounding communities.
Questions
Before you call.
How long does a project take?
It depends on density, terrain, plant type and weather, but as a working figure, ten goats will clear roughly an acre of light to medium vegetation in about five to seven days. We size the herd to hit the timeline you need and give you a firm estimate after walking the property.
How much does goatscaping cost?
Pricing comes from acreage, vegetation density, access and how long the herd needs to be on site. We quote after an on-site assessment, and we give you the number with and without add-on services like mulching, chipping or debris removal so you can decide what's worth it.
Will the vegetation grow back?
Some of it, yes — and any company that promises otherwise is overselling. Goats remove top growth; they don't remove roots. What repeated grazing does is force the plant to keep spending root reserves to regrow, which weakens established invasives over time. For kudzu, privet or ivy we'll usually recommend a multi-season schedule.
Is it safe around children, pets and livestock?
Yes. There's no herbicide involved, so there's no re-entry interval and nothing toxic left behind. The herd is contained in portable electric fencing and monitored. If you have a dog, we'll talk through whether it needs to be kept in or leashed while the goats are on site.
What about plants I want to keep?
We identify them during the assessment and fence or protect them before the herd goes in. Goats prefer shrubs, vines and broadleaf growth over grass, so lawn areas typically come through untouched.
Do the goats stay overnight? Who watches them?
Typically the herd stays on site until the job is finished, unless weather, predator pressure or an animal's health says otherwise. We check them in person on a regular schedule and can add solar-powered cameras for remote monitoring. On large or distant projects we can station someone with the herd full-time.
Do I need to provide power, water or site prep?
No. Fencing runs on solar, we bring water if the site doesn't have a usable source, and we handle setup and removal. If debris or trash is in the way, that's an add-on we can scope during the estimate.
How far will you travel?
Most of our work sits within about an hour of Elkin, and we regularly go further — Winston-Salem, High Point, Hickory, Statesville, Mooresville and the Lake Norman area are all routine for us. Whether an on-site visit is free depends on the drive and the size of the job, and we'll tell you that on the phone before anyone gets in a truck. Further out than that? Still call. Bigger projects justify a longer haul.
Ready when you are
Let's go look at the property.
An on-site assessment, a written plan, and an honest answer about whether grazing is the right tool for your site.