Sheep Replace Lawnmowers In Italy
by Justin Thomas, Virginia 
on 04. 8.08
Police are having to double up as shepherds in Italy after local councilors decided to scrap the city lawnmowers -- and use sheep instead. About 700 sheep have now been employed by Turin officials to keep the grass verges and lawns in city parks neatly trimmed. Environment officials in Turin said they were paying 30,000 euros in gardeners’ fees to cut the grass in just one of the bigger parks.
Manager of the project, Federico Tombolato, said: "Using sheep is not only cheaper and more environmentally friendly, but we also get to sell them at the end of the process to raise more money."
But drivers faced blocked roads across the city as the sheep were moved around Turin and locals who liked to sit on the grass complained that it was now covered in sheep mess.
Via: Ecoscraps
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Leave it to the Italians to come up with a solution like this.
While I'm all about the natural lawnmower idea, I agree about now having to worry about stepping in sheep mess. Not exactly ideal for public spaces.
Which is worse? Lawn fertilizer or sheep smidt in der stormwater.
This is greatness. Almost as good as buying/renting a goat to take care of your back yard. :-D
A trick learnt from Curitiba, Brazil, no doubt, where shepherds are encouraged by the city, to maintain parks and gardens.
Good for them! Do the taxpayers get free wool and mutton?
Once upon a time, sheep grazed the White House lawn to keep the grass trimmed. Now they're all in Congress.
hahaha, that's awesome. I might expect that in a rural area, but Turin?! hah
This is a great idea, with some obvious flaws. For me, but not for everyone I guess, the flaws are outweighted by not having to pay gas and maintenance on a bunch of unnecessary machines that pollute and smell bad, and then getting to eat nice grass-fed lamb. I tried to pitch this to a NYC Parks employee for Prospect Park lawn care, and she responded - quite astutely, I thought - that the problem with animals as lawnmowers is that animals crap on the lawns. American parents unfortunately won't stand for dung in areas where their kids play. Oh well.
This is great!
Maybe we should all have grazing lifestock instead of lawnmowers. We could own them collectively with the neighbours and just build gates between the gardens. It would increase contact with the neighbours, reduce GHG and doesn't mean the sheep will be hogging your garden every day, every week.
Of course: whatever goes in... Comes out. But we can compost the faeces easily because it aren't carnivores, right?
This might sound weird to non-THs, but I'd rather scoop poop for the plots of grass I use extensively, ending up with locally produced meat/milk and compost. Than push a gasguzzling lawnmower, ending up with nothing but the grass compost (which takes way longer to become functional as a fertilizer.)
It would also grow us some contact with our food, animals and the total circle of life. Nature could respond to our actions: if you used a lot of evil products in your garden before, maybe the sheep could get diaria. I bet people wouldn't use those nasty products anymore! It would be the like the canary in the mineshaft.
Nice move of the Turin Council
That sounds kind of dumb... sheep destroy vegetation. They pull grass up from its roots to eat it.. pretty soon turnin won't have grass to mow... so no need for a lawn mower or the sheep.
I have often wished that the large corporation near
us ( who own a very large hunk of lawn around
their nearly-empty buildings ) would put sheep in
there - it is well and tightly fenced and would be
a nice note in the city.. Noticing how much money they could save by doing it makes it an even better idea.
And since no one sits on the grass there, it's an
even better idea. One drawback is that sheep pull
the grass out by the roots and would be hard on a
lawn, altho in this case it wouldn't matter since it
will probably be paved eventually anyway. And
their manure and urine would enrich the soil for the
new owners who could scrape it away and sell it
for topsoil.
I saw a similar article some months ago about a US college that was now using sheep/goats to keep its lawns under control. I wasn't too sure about that one and I'm not too sure about this post.
I wouldn't be too happy about sheep mess everywhere. In the countryside it's expected, but what if you want to to get away from the office for an hour and sit outside to eat your lunch? The mess could be cleaned up, but then that would add to the costs.
Further, what about the transportation and accomodation costs? Ferrying 700 sheep about a city must be far more time-consuming and costly than a couple of small vans for a few lawnmowers or whatever.
If the sheep are a menace to motorists, how about the environmental impact of all the time cars have their engines idling because sheep are blocking their way? Not to mention the road safety issue.
There are many other questions I'd like answers to, but at this point that's impossible. I'd like to return to this story in a year to see just how eco-friendly and cost cutting it really is.
Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com
Fantastic!!!!! Sheep are one of the greatest farm animals. I'm planning on starting my flock this summer.
My partner and I thought of buying a sheep or goat that we could 'hire' out to fellow renters with backyards but no lawn mowers. We asked several enviro shops if any schemes existing and got looks as if we were slightly mad.
To be honest, our limits were how to transport a sheep without a car/trailer and fear the sheep could be mistreated.