FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How many acres is your minimum?
Currently, we have the capacity to work 40-60 acre minimum. We prefer larger 50-200 acres. It takes a lot of logistics and shepherds to attend to an area and move to a site. It also provides more meaningful cost effective protection to people, property and habitat to serve a larger contiguous acreage.
We’d love to help out neighborhoods, so if you want to organize 50 (relatively contiguous) acres in your neighborhood either with or without your local or regional Fire Safe Councils, we are open to help. Also, grant monies are being made available for fire abatement, whether through CalFire ($140 million in 2023) or other agencies.
We don’t have anyone to refer you to handle smaller acreage, we may be able to in the future, it’s currently not viable.
How many animals do you have?
We care for many animals and the flock/herd (flerd) changes is size seasonally, and as their shepherds in a modern world we reserve all our rights to our private property.
Where do the animals go at night?
They usually find somewhere where they can see predators coming, like the top of a hillside and stay together as a herd in the paddock with the guardian dogs.
Where do you get water?
We put a filter on piped in water sources and require our clients ie. friendly neighbors like you to provide the water sources whether it is hose bibs, irrigation hook ups, or metered fire hydrants etc.
What about coyotes?
Our livestock guardian dogs are great protectors. They will fend off predators of all shapes and sizes.
Can I feed them a snack?
Please do not feed them. You can risk altering their stomach bacteria and making them sick. Also, people feeding our herd outside the fence may cause the herd to push over the fence and cause damage.
Can I bring my pets to see the herd?
Please leave your furry family members behind. Our dogs view all domestic dogs as threats, even without aggression. It won’t be pleasant for anyone to have them come to the herd.
Is this all they eat?
We supplement due to lack of protein, and minerals in the forage. We spend small fortunes on grass, although we’d prefer to grow it, and we give them salt and minerals, and seaweed and kelp that we harvest.
Are the animals friendly?
We do our best to socialize and train our animals. All animals are here working. From the dogs, sheep, goats, and cat, they all have their role. They are well fed, so please do not feed them.
Who cares for the animals?
The shepherds that live on-site.
You live on-site?
We cover a wide expanse of area, and we need to be available to tend to them 24/7, it takes materials, equipment and on-site shepherds to safely provide the service.
What is a shepherd?
One of the oldest vocations a shepherd requires a presence with the herd to guide them through the land, keeping them safe, and fed. We work and live around the herd and the cycles of nature.
Is the fence electric?
Yes, please don’t touch it. While it’s not dangerous it will give a memorable shock, and could short-circuit electronics.
What kind of sheep and goats are they?
The flock of sheep mixes from Katahdin, Dorper and Barbados hair sheep that mostly grow seasonal hair or some wool, but naturally shed their growth. The herd of goats are a combo of pure and hybrid breeds of Kiko, Boer, Nubian, Alpine, Guernsey, and Nigerian dwarf goats. We have had great, Nubian, Kiko, and Boer/Kiko bucks in an aim to get the characteristics that are best for the work they do. As you'll notice we have a lot of genetic diversity in the herd seeing differentiation characteristics amongst most of the herd.
How much do they eat?
Ruminants eat 4% of their body weight every day. They eat day and night and have to take breaks to digest the food and have it go to their other stomach chamber. Our herd usually eats between 1400-2000lbs of fire fuel everyday and can on average clears 1-2.5/acres a day.
Why isn’t all the brush cleared?
Our natural environment needs the vegetation to have a healthy ecosystem, that in turn can hold more water in the soil, preventing erosion and fostering heather fire resistant plants, while providing healthy habitat for animals.
What does happen is that most of the vegetation is thinned out to a point that it won’t have enough contiguous plant matter to keep a hot fire going. The goats browse, sometimes you may see them climbing, and the sheep mow.
Without herd ruminants, fire will eventually come to cycle the plant matter back into the soil. In place of having intense wild fires we can manage the brush and grasses with careful management of our flerd (flock and herd).
Nature’s recyclers: Sheep and goats have 4 stomach chambers in which they can take plant matter and turn it into pelletized compost that can go directly back to feeding the soil.
If you cut and remove plants you are taking the material out of the natural cycle and the earth starts to become devoid of nutrients, drier and more brittle harsh plants come back as it turns from lush to fire tinder and eventually dessert. We seek to have succession from desert to forest.
Where are you based?
We are nomadic shepherds, and although many of us we reared in the known as San Diego, we haven’t a physical home-base. We are open to working with others with 50+ acres of grazable land and can see a win-win scenario with us.
Who supports the fire abatement efforts?
Currently most projects are contracted from private land managers and Housing Associations. Some grants are being attained by Fire Safe Councils and Resource Conservation Districts. Recognition Statewide: CalFire, the Board of Forestry, as well as many other relevant organizations have seen the research and implementation of prescribed grazing. California’s government and local leaders have began to promote it as a way to effectively ecologically manage high severity fire zones.
Can I buy goat milk?
We get this request often. And the good news is we are working to locate a dairy on a pasture in the region. This will be run as a private membership association, where you will have to own your goat to get the milk and will not be available to the public or be sold in public.
5 trillion dollars worth of property in San Diego is at high-severity fire risk zones. Talk to your neighbors about coming together to prevent one in your backyard. Join us!
@wearegoodshepherds
[email protected]
Currently, we have the capacity to work 40-60 acre minimum. We prefer larger 50-200 acres. It takes a lot of logistics and shepherds to attend to an area and move to a site. It also provides more meaningful cost effective protection to people, property and habitat to serve a larger contiguous acreage.
We’d love to help out neighborhoods, so if you want to organize 50 (relatively contiguous) acres in your neighborhood either with or without your local or regional Fire Safe Councils, we are open to help. Also, grant monies are being made available for fire abatement, whether through CalFire ($140 million in 2023) or other agencies.
We don’t have anyone to refer you to handle smaller acreage, we may be able to in the future, it’s currently not viable.
How many animals do you have?
We care for many animals and the flock/herd (flerd) changes is size seasonally, and as their shepherds in a modern world we reserve all our rights to our private property.
Where do the animals go at night?
They usually find somewhere where they can see predators coming, like the top of a hillside and stay together as a herd in the paddock with the guardian dogs.
Where do you get water?
We put a filter on piped in water sources and require our clients ie. friendly neighbors like you to provide the water sources whether it is hose bibs, irrigation hook ups, or metered fire hydrants etc.
What about coyotes?
Our livestock guardian dogs are great protectors. They will fend off predators of all shapes and sizes.
Can I feed them a snack?
Please do not feed them. You can risk altering their stomach bacteria and making them sick. Also, people feeding our herd outside the fence may cause the herd to push over the fence and cause damage.
Can I bring my pets to see the herd?
Please leave your furry family members behind. Our dogs view all domestic dogs as threats, even without aggression. It won’t be pleasant for anyone to have them come to the herd.
Is this all they eat?
We supplement due to lack of protein, and minerals in the forage. We spend small fortunes on grass, although we’d prefer to grow it, and we give them salt and minerals, and seaweed and kelp that we harvest.
Are the animals friendly?
We do our best to socialize and train our animals. All animals are here working. From the dogs, sheep, goats, and cat, they all have their role. They are well fed, so please do not feed them.
Who cares for the animals?
The shepherds that live on-site.
You live on-site?
We cover a wide expanse of area, and we need to be available to tend to them 24/7, it takes materials, equipment and on-site shepherds to safely provide the service.
What is a shepherd?
One of the oldest vocations a shepherd requires a presence with the herd to guide them through the land, keeping them safe, and fed. We work and live around the herd and the cycles of nature.
Is the fence electric?
Yes, please don’t touch it. While it’s not dangerous it will give a memorable shock, and could short-circuit electronics.
What kind of sheep and goats are they?
The flock of sheep mixes from Katahdin, Dorper and Barbados hair sheep that mostly grow seasonal hair or some wool, but naturally shed their growth. The herd of goats are a combo of pure and hybrid breeds of Kiko, Boer, Nubian, Alpine, Guernsey, and Nigerian dwarf goats. We have had great, Nubian, Kiko, and Boer/Kiko bucks in an aim to get the characteristics that are best for the work they do. As you'll notice we have a lot of genetic diversity in the herd seeing differentiation characteristics amongst most of the herd.
How much do they eat?
Ruminants eat 4% of their body weight every day. They eat day and night and have to take breaks to digest the food and have it go to their other stomach chamber. Our herd usually eats between 1400-2000lbs of fire fuel everyday and can on average clears 1-2.5/acres a day.
Why isn’t all the brush cleared?
Our natural environment needs the vegetation to have a healthy ecosystem, that in turn can hold more water in the soil, preventing erosion and fostering heather fire resistant plants, while providing healthy habitat for animals.
What does happen is that most of the vegetation is thinned out to a point that it won’t have enough contiguous plant matter to keep a hot fire going. The goats browse, sometimes you may see them climbing, and the sheep mow.
Without herd ruminants, fire will eventually come to cycle the plant matter back into the soil. In place of having intense wild fires we can manage the brush and grasses with careful management of our flerd (flock and herd).
Nature’s recyclers: Sheep and goats have 4 stomach chambers in which they can take plant matter and turn it into pelletized compost that can go directly back to feeding the soil.
If you cut and remove plants you are taking the material out of the natural cycle and the earth starts to become devoid of nutrients, drier and more brittle harsh plants come back as it turns from lush to fire tinder and eventually dessert. We seek to have succession from desert to forest.
Where are you based?
We are nomadic shepherds, and although many of us we reared in the known as San Diego, we haven’t a physical home-base. We are open to working with others with 50+ acres of grazable land and can see a win-win scenario with us.
Who supports the fire abatement efforts?
Currently most projects are contracted from private land managers and Housing Associations. Some grants are being attained by Fire Safe Councils and Resource Conservation Districts. Recognition Statewide: CalFire, the Board of Forestry, as well as many other relevant organizations have seen the research and implementation of prescribed grazing. California’s government and local leaders have began to promote it as a way to effectively ecologically manage high severity fire zones.
Can I buy goat milk?
We get this request often. And the good news is we are working to locate a dairy on a pasture in the region. This will be run as a private membership association, where you will have to own your goat to get the milk and will not be available to the public or be sold in public.
5 trillion dollars worth of property in San Diego is at high-severity fire risk zones. Talk to your neighbors about coming together to prevent one in your backyard. Join us!
@wearegoodshepherds
[email protected]
