Increasingly in recent years, Californians have put goats’ voracious and almost indiscriminate diets to work, minimizing fuel for wildfires across the state — a method that has been heralded as sustainable, economical and effective at reducing underbrush that can become dangerous in the hot summer months.
But goat ranchers worry a recent change in state labor requirements for herders could jeopardize the future of the industry — which some have said is particularly important this year, after an extremely wet winter left behind even more fuel for wildfires. Goat herders were recently reclassified by California labor regulators, differentiating them from sheep herders — a new distinction that means goat herders will no longer be eligible for a monthly herders’ compensation, set at a minimum of $2,755 plus required overtime. Instead, employers will be required come Jan. 1 to compensate goat herders at an hourly rate, now set at $15.50 for farmworkers, plus required overtime.
And given the nature of a goat herders’ job, which is considered on-call 24/7, industry leaders and the California Farm Bureau estimate that change would come out to almost $14,000 a month.are going to beArrowsmith employs seven goat herders from Peru, who are on federal guest worker permits. He provides free housing, food and a phone.
“We are taking very good care of the employees because they are taking very good care of the livestock,” Arrowsmith said.“We can’t sustain it, and the cities can’t sustain it … The goats will go to the market, and we will sell out, and I’ll go to work at Walmart,” Arrowsmith said.Arrowsmith started with one client 10 years ago. Now he has more than 100 customers and 6,000 goats.