Every fall, ski areas across Vermont have to brush hog and weed whack their slopes to clear them of shrubs and grass for ski season. Now, some mountains are experimenting with a different kind of mower: goats and sheep.

On a recent afternoon, about 150 animals were making short work of grazing Jay Peak’s Interstate trail.

“The goats are great at the trees and the goldenrod and the other types of brush, but the sheep really do well with the grasses,” says farmer Adam Ricci of Barnet. “So by mixing the two together, we get everything covered pretty well.”

Ricci’s goats and sheep are outfitted with special solar-powered collars that use GPS trackers.

Instead of using traditional electric fencing, he draws a boundary map on his phone that he calls a “virtual paddock.”

This lets him move t

See Full Page