×

Nature’s way

Sheep, fish offer benefits to area towns

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter Brandon Erickson grazes sheep at the Badger lagoon, saving the need for the city to mow it regularly. About 21 sheep are out there at a time, while a second flock is back at Erickson’s home.

A small town’s wastewater treatment lagoon may not seem like an inviting place, but at some lagoons, animals are doing an important job to help the humans in the town.

For instance in Badger, weeds and grasses around the water are trimmed thanks to sheep, instead of mowers.

And at Dayton’s lagoon, various kinds of fish live in the water to help move along the cleaning process in a more natural way.

“A lot of places use grass carp. That helps control the algae and grass that grows in there,” City Foreman Craig Johnson said. “In the primary ones, where everything goes to start with, a lot of people are using bullheads to help reduce the sludge buildup in the bottom. They help keep it stirred up. So we have a few bullheads we’re trying, too.

“It saves us on chemical costs, and it’s more natural,” Johnson added.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter Brandon Erickson is greeted by one of the sheep he has grazing the Badger sanitary lagoon. About 21 sheep, who are fairly tame because they’ve all been shown, keep the city from needing to mow the weeds and grass around its water treatment pools.

It’s a new program for Dayton, said Johnson, who learned about using fish from a Kirkwood Community College instructor, Rhonda Guy, who does a lot of work with small communities.

“We decided we’d give it a try this year. After a year or two we’ll have a better idea of if it’s working,” Johnson said.

So far, it seems to be going well, although there was so much grass built up the fish are having a hard time catching up, he said.

“We had so much grass in the last few years in our final pond. I think they’re keeping up with it, but the grass had a head start on them,” he said. “It’s not getting as bad as it has been some years.”

The recommendation is about eight to 10 fish per acre, Johnson said, so the city put about 40 fish out there.

Dayton bids out the land around the lagoon, Johnson said, and whoever gets the low bid can use the land for grazing sheep or goats, or use it to cut hay. A cutting is coming up in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, Badger’s lagoon seems to be doing well with its wooly caretakers. And fortunately, there’s not really any smell.

“You forget where you’re at sometimes,” said Brandon Erickson, standing next to one of the ponds on a hot afternoon as he watched his sheep grazing. “It’s already been filtered so many times.”

Erickson has been bringing sheep there since about 2009. Before that another farmer had grazed sheep there.

“I got lucky,” Erickson said of picking up the spot.

Erickson has about 21 sheep at the lagoon right now. He just brought this group in, after taking a different group back home.

He lives near Humboldt, and works in Fort Dodge; it’s easy to stop by the lagoon just south of Badger every other day or so to keep track of how they’re doing.

Erickson said he’s seen goats grazing by Goldfield in the past, and other towns employ livestock for weed control as well.

Russ Euken, Iowa State University Extension field specialist in livestock, said he’s not sure how common it is, but he knows there are several small towns that do it.

“It’s a good way to keep it mowed on some areas that would be hard to mow,” Euken said.

Erickson’s sheep have been shown, so they’re pretty tame. They come right up to Erickson when he walks in, and they’ll come right up to the fence at the entrance as well.

“When the sheep are up at the fence, people stop,” he said.

That might be why Badger is eager to keep them around, he added.

“The community likes having the sheep here,” he said. “It’s a benefit to both of us. It saves them money, it saves me money, everybody’s happy.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today