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Comment by gdubs | Hacker News Reader

What I want: an autonomous, EV brush mower to take care of the scarily steep slopes of our native upland prairie restoration project.

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Autonomous, EV mower/tedder/rake for hay fields with an integrated weather center. Would like that for my life. Bonus points for super low center of gravity, so we could get value out of the hills more than CRP checks.

You mean... Goats?

Lol, that’s great. Would love to have grazing animals in the future but we’re not quite ready to take care of them yet. Also involves decisions on fencing etc. I have been warned a LOT about goats and their ability to destroy everything, and evade even the tallest fences.

What about goats with earphones, trained to stimuli?

I'm not actually "rural", but I have chickens. (One of which is 10 years old!) There is such a thing as a "judas goat"; or "judas chicken". I've been through three generations of chickens now. The first generation ended up a quarter mile away on Pete's garden (he wasn't that upset). It doesn't happen any more.

You're right, goats can be trouble makers. We use sheep to mow our lawn and they are very easy to deal with. They won't go over a 2 foot fence and don't need a lot of maintenance. Water, occasionally some mineral rich feed, and a shear.

Sheep is what I’d like to get eventually. I LOVE that Hawaii’s giant solar farm incorporated sheep into their design, as the method of keeping the panels clear of vegetation.

Are there any plants you can replace the brush with that do well in the environment, fit what you want better, and stop at an acceptable height?

Most of it is really just mowing the prairie grass. The brush has largely been mechanically removed, but the mowing is meant to suppress weeds as well as annuals which try relentlessly to suppress the native vegetation. Reduces need for spraying / extensive manual weed control.

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