Goats:
Goats or Capra aegagrus hircus are a very useful way to help control weeds.
    Goats are reputed to be willing to eat almost anything. This is not true. Goats prefer to browse on plants rather than pasture grasses.  Many landowners use inexpensive (i.e. not purebred) goats for brush control, leading to the use of the term "brush goats." (Brush goats are not a variety of goat, but are named for the function they perform.). Wethers are neutered male goats. They are used most often since they are a byproduct of the dairy industry and also make great pets. Because they prefer shrubs (e.g. multiflora rose, thorns, small trees, etc.) to clover and grass, they are often used to keep fields clear for other animals.(1)
    Goats and sheep have long been used for weed control. Their use has increased in recent years because of the need for biological control agents in environmentally sensitive areas. Sheep mostly graze forbs (flowering plants) while goats generally consume shrubs. Sheep and goats became popular biological control agents to control leafy spurge in the northern Great Plains region in the mid 1980s and the 1990s.(3)
    "It is particularly interesting to note that sheep and goats will sometimes prefer diets of our most scorned noxious weeds rather than more desirable plants. This preference is closely tied to locations from where these animals originated, and the plant species prevalent in their native lands. We see the same phenomenon in our native wildlife ungulates which usually will not graze in areas infested with high densities of Eurasian weeds." If you pen/fence goats onto a small area, this will force them to comsume weeds right down to the roots and will severly damage some noxious weeds. (2)
    Check the American Dairy Goat Association web site (http://www.adga.org/) for breeders to buy wethers for weed control.
Goat Links:
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/weeds/publications/Goat_weed_management.pdf  
http://www.swcoloradohome.com/articles/gardening/goats.asp 
http://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com/wgrazing.htm  
http://wsare.usu.edu/pro/pr2002/FW01-039.pdf 
http://www.uidaho.edu/extension/impacts/Pdf_02/02williams-noxious.pdf 
http://utahpests.usu.edu/ipm/files/uploads/MiniGrantDocs/2007/IPM-mg07-prop-banks.pdf 
http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/magazine/summer04/goats.html 
http://www.joe.org/joe/2006october/rb6.shtml 
http://aec.army.mil/usaec/publicaffairs/update/fall03/fall0314.html 
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/hay/r1093w.htm 
Citations
(1) Wikipedia. Last Edited 03:05, 18 March 2007.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat>.

(2) Cindy Owsley. Boulder Colerado County.  <http://www.co.boulder.co.us/openspace/resources/weeds/weeds_bio.htm>.

 (3) North Dakota Department of Agriculture. Last Edited May 1995.  <http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/hay/r1093w.htm>.
By BG.  3-19-07. 
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