Sheep graze UC Davis lawn in experiment

PHOTO: Professor Haven Kiers feeds one of the sheep from the experiment.

By Max Davis-Housefield,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff-

People are flocking to the Solano Field on the UC Davis campus to watch a herd of 25 sheep mow the grass. The sheep will be there from Sept. 20 to 22 as a central aspect of an experiment conducted by professor Haven Kiers. 

Kiers, a UCD landscape architecture professor,  is comparing one acre of grass grazed by the sheep over three days with a similar acre of grass that is maintained in a traditional manner with mowing and fertilization by the campus Grounds and Landscape Service.

“We’re looking at the fertilization of the soil, the grass length, compaction rates, and then we’re looking at plant biodiversity and seeing if the sheep are actually eating some of the weeds,” Kiers said. “Bindweed [an invasive weed that looks similar to a morning glory] … is one of their favorites, it’s like absolute candy to them, so if we can have them eradicate that, it would be this bonus.”

Additionally, Kiers hopes that students might be able to spend time with the sheep to de-stress. 

“I’ve found that people just come out and watch the sheep and that it calms them down and reduces anxiety,” she said.

UCD freshmen Sydney Griffin had gotten lost on her way to the chemistry building and wound up at the field. This was her first time seeing the sheep in person, but she follows them on social media. 

“I get really excited whenever they post on Instagram,” Griffin said.      

Kiers has dreamed of this project for years. “The romantic background is that I read an article in the New York Times about sheep in front of the Eiffel Tower and they were mowing the lawns in front of that area, and I thought that was about the coolest thing I had ever heard of.”

This is the fifth “sheepmowing” session so far, and there will be one more in October. Then, the program will take a break for the winter and Kiers hopes that when it returns in the spring, the sheep can be moved closer to the center of campus.

The sheep, which come from Animal Science’s sheep barn on campus, are overseen by two student “shepherds” at a time who are trained in safety procedures.

Kiers is interested in the wider application of her research. She thinks that sheep could be used to graze in fire-prone areas to lower the fuel load and prevent large fires, and that they can even be used in burn scars to eat the invasive weeds and encourage the native plants to regrow.

She has found that “waste wool,” the wool on their bellies that gets dirty can be used as effective mulch, and she hopes to work with the design department to find a use for black wool that can’t be dyed and therefore is not very desirable.

Kiers is excited for the future. “We’re talking about, in October, having a knitting day or a felting day,” Kiers said.

Kiers hopes to get a “sheepcam” running to livestream their hijinks to Instagram. 

You can follow the sheepmowers project on Instagram @ucdavis_sheepmowers.