Rocky Mountain Wooly Weeders

Nature's Weed Control

For the past three decades, we have grown a milk-fed lamb under open range conditions that we provide to many of the finest restaurants in Northern California. All along the way, we have been mowing cropland, vineyards, and parks of our region in a most environmentally sensitive way.

With our sheep, we have learned all about sustainable agriculture. Grazing sheep is a prehistoric vocation that lends itself well to the modern world that we live in. We have been able to protect communities from fire, remove noxious weeks, and all in all; leave the land healthier and more productive than it was before we began.

Our sheep and goats thrive on grassland, chapparal and open space of the west between San Francisco and the Rocky Mountain region.

– Don Watson, Napa Valley Lamb and Rocky Mountain Wooly Weeders

Don Watson raises some of the best milk-fed lambs on the planet. The ones that don’t make it to Chez Panisse are rented out as lawn mowers in Northern California. Watson says his Wooly Weeders can digest noxious plants and manage steep hillsides and tightly spaced vineyards while leaving behind rich fertilizer. Vintners, like the Mondavi family, have hired them to snack on leaves that drain nutrients from grapes. Others use them to prevent brush fires. Guarantees Watson, “Five hundred sheep will turn 10 grassy acres into a golf course, overnight.”

Michele Gentille

Now Mowing | No-Impact Sheep, New York Times Magazine