No Kidding: Google Hires Goats to Mow, Fertilize Lawn

[axekick]

When I lived in a rural part of central Florida this was pretty common for land owners to get a couple goats rather than mow their lawns.

I have read that running the average lawn mower for one hour creates the same amount of carbon emissions as running the average car for 20 hours. If this is true, then I'm with Google.

 

[Tindytim]

[citation][nom]vest101[/nom]ummm... to all you guys who are given crap about methane being far more efficient as a green house gas and saying this is just as bad or even worse than lawnmowers... lets not forget that these are RENTED goats. its not like they bred these animals for this purpose. their gonna fart and crap no matter where they are[/citation]
That is a good point.

But, if Google's demands grow, or if other companies try similar methods, more goats will be bred to do so, thus producing more methane.

 

[jaragon13]

Honestly, you rather have lawn mowers? They're very audible from inside the building and they make a smell much more wide-range than the goats. I would take the goats, or hell, grow bamboo and call it quits on the "cutting the grass"

 

[rockyjohn]

RE:
Whats next..Dogs running wall street...

I thought that was already happening.

And RE:

"Oh my Jane, and just when I was starting to believe that you were improving, you came with this totally useless crap.In fact, when I read the title of the news I said to myself "I bet it was written by Jane." Yep, I was right, but rest assured that I didn't bothered myself reading it,"

Oh my - condemned by his own words. He admits to not reading the item but that does not stop him from attacking it. What a sad guy. Or is it worse that he considers a human interest story to be "totally useless crap". I feel very sorry for this guy.

 

[Guest]

I love global warming - Goats milk is awful though.

 

[Animebando]

[citation][nom]ehenry818[/nom]It's the new outsourcing...Whats next..Dogs running wall street...[/citation]

Almost anything is better than the dumb-asses we already have there.

 

[my_name_is_earl]

You guy all wrong... They're going to have a feast and what's better than goat?

 

[ta152h]

There's no way lawn mower produces 20x the carbon dioxide a car does, in fact it would be considerably less than a car since they use much less gas. Probably whoever said that was referring to other pollutants, since most mowers don't have catalytic converters. But, for CO2, cats don't help.

To the person who said the goats will produce the same amount of methane, regardless, take a second to think about it. If you're a goat grower (or whatever they are called), and now your goats are committed to Google for a week at a time, you're now in a situation where you're goat poor, and you need more. So, now you're breeding for more of these beasts - you're demand has gone up and now you need to increase your available goats. It's not like these things are strays and you rescue them from the streets, they are deliberately bred, and that is based on demand. So you end up with more of these beasts, and therefore more methane. Also, think of all the metal cans that could have been recycles via the goats, that now require incineration .

And as someone else said, the amount of gasoline you have to use to bring these things to "work" is pretty expensive. It's good PR, for sure, but if you look any deeper, it's disingenous. But, still, if I were working for Google, I'd definitely enjoy seeing goats out there munching down on the weeds. It's good for moral, and employee moral is very important. But, I'm not sure it's good for global warming. I'm pretty sure it isn't.

 

[ptroen]

methane emissions won't be the biggest problem imho. Look at all the poop the goats produce. I wouldn't drink the local drinking water...

 

[mrubermonkey]

When news is slow you make your own news.

 

[Guest]

The lawnmower can start a new job as goat keeper @ google!

Everyone else had the thought of how much CO2 does a herd of goats produce? I bet it's a lot more than a lawnmower; but then again, afterwards you can eat the goats, and not a lawnmower machine (or perhaps get some goat milk)

 

[ira176]

So much for having lunch on the lawn. Instead of the picnic blanket, you might need a tarp, to keep the goat excrement from getting on you. I also hope they did a study to find out how much CO2 and CH4 a heard of goats puts out versus the amount of C02 a lawn mower puts out. I'm not sure that I'd buy into this as making their image greener.

 

[Tindytim]

[citation][nom]ProDigit80[/nom]The lawnmower can start a new job as goat keeper @ google!Everyone else had the thought of how much CO2 does a herd of goats produce? I bet it's a lot more than a lawnmower; but then again, afterwards you can eat the goats, and not a lawnmower machine (or perhaps get some goat milk)[/citation]
It's methane, Goats produce methane, and it's a more potent greenhouse gas.

 

[PCKid777]

As far as the whole CO2 emissions is concerned, I don't think anyone has mentioned CO2 neutrality. Goats eat carbon, poop carbon and next year, the weeds grow back up and absorb carbon. Only downside is driving the goats to the location... now just to get the goat owners to use biofuels or the methane produced by the goats.

 

[ta152h]

PCKid777, you're oversimplifying it. They also breath out carbon, so the amount they take in, isn't all accounted for in the waste.

Carbon is not a fertilizer, the main components are Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus. Carbon is absorbed through the air by plants, strangely, however, Nitrogen is not, despite it being MUCH more abundant. Nitrogen must be absorbed from the soil, and that's what manures provide, mainly. There are of course trace amounts of other useful minerals, including Potassium and Phosphorous, and even iron, but there are much better sources of these in the event you've identified a deficiency there. Although with goats, their manure is probably very high in iron if they've eaten any cans .

At any rate, some of the carbon is expelled as CO2 from the mouth of the beast. So, you increase carbon dioxide AND methane production. The carbon would otherwise have remained part of the Earth, in most cases (a fire before it decomposed into soil being an example where it would not).

 

[enforcer22]

[citation][nom]ie49589[/nom]Oh my Jane, and just when I was starting to believe that you were improving, you came with this totally useless crap.In fact, when I read the title of the news I said to myself "I bet it was written by Jane." Yep, I was right, but rest assured that I didn't bothered myself reading it, I just came here to confirm my suspicions and to comment on its uselessness.I guess you will remain as a crappy blogger forever.Later.[/citation]


maybe one of those goats could eat that giant log stuck in your ass.

I however found it pretty amusing. Not really news but worth the short read for the laugh.

 

[jivdis1x]

Lets hire goats for trash collection too

 

[aevm]

I loved the article, it's funny

I wonder what Microsoft will do now to respond to this.

 

[resonance451]

[citation][nom]ehenry818[/nom]It's the new outsourcing...Whats next..Dogs running wall street...[/citation]

You are making a joke, right?

[citation][nom]ie49589[/nom]Oh my Jane, and just when I was starting to believe that you were improving, you came with this totally useless crap.In fact, when I read the title of the news I said to myself "I bet it was written by Jane." Yep, I was right, but rest assured that I didn't bothered myself reading it, I just came here to confirm my suspicions and to comment on its uselessness.I guess you will remain as a crappy blogger forever.Later.[/citation]

I personally rather enjoy most of her articles. They end up being the better articles posted here. I always check to see who wrote which article so I can see if there's a stark contrast in quality. I think the quality varies greatly from one editor to another, and that's something Tom's needs to fix, very badly. I don't know if they're going to bother, but I think consistency is very important. Jane's articles, however, have proven to be some of the better material, so I'd instead concentrate on the other authors more often than not.

I used to idolize journalism and had the desire to make articles for electronics and electronic gaming websites, and even started my own .com address at age 12 (which I maintained and updated with content using PS, Dreamweaver, WS-FTP, and good ol' notepad), but I've steadily grown disenchanted with journalism as a whole given my overexposure to the negative side of things.

/shrug.. welcome to life. Also, goats are awesome. Except for the one that was elected to the highest office in the United States for the previous eight years.

 

[jacobdrj]

In SeaQuest DSV, cattle was deemed illegal because of the methane gas they were emitting while being farmed. Methane is hundreds of times more potent of a greenhouse gas relitive to CO2, according to the show...
Ballard...
Lol...
Burgers...