News Roundup: Waco Is Using Goats To Groom Tricky Terrain

Our daily look at Texas headlines.

By Becky FogelMay 30, 2019 1:07 pm

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

A Texas business is promoting an eco-friendly way to clear land and manage vegetation: a herd of goats.

Kyle Carr and his wife Carolyn started Rent-A-Ruminant Texas four years ago; it’s their own franchise of a company founded in Seattle. Carr explains they bring in about 120 goats to graze in areas that are not easily maintained by city or private property owners.

“Usually, it’s on the sides of creeks or creek bottoms, rocky areas, places where it’s very difficult to get in machinery or even safety issues for people trying to mow or use chemicals and that sort of thing – different applications to control the vegetation that’s overgrown in that area,” Carr says.

This week, for example, Waco Parks and Recreation had the goats go to town on some invasive vegetation.

“They had an area right next to the Brazos River that they’ve been unable to get into because there is just so much poison ivy and vines that had grown up that they couldn’t even get in there to remove some fallen trees or plant the species they want to have growing on the hillside,” Carr says.

Carr says all 120 of their goats have names, including one named Feta.

“We also do have one named Scape – ya know, ‘scape goat,’ so he’s out there as well,” Carr says. 

Carr adds, when the goats’ grazing days are over they get to retire to his family’s property. The grazing season lasts from April through October.




As travelers walked through security checkpoints at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport last year, they left behind quite a bit of loose change. KERA’s Anthony Cave reports:

Chump change? Think again. More than $36,000 was left at security checkpoints at DFW Airport in fiscal year 2018. The airport ranked No. 6 on the list of airports nationwide with the most loose change. That’s according to the Transportation Security Administration. DFW trailed Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles International and Miami International. The biggest pool of unclaimed money? John F. Kennedy International in New York, where passengers left behind more than $72,000. Overall, almost $1 million was left at airports across the country. That’s 11% more cash than the year before. The TSA says it will use the unclaimed money for checkpoint training. 




The Texas Rangers will play their first regular-season Major League Baseball game at their new stadium, Globe Life Field, on March 31, 2020. They’ll face the Los Angeles Angels, according to a preliminary schedule obtained by the Associated Press. The first-ever game at the new park will be a preseason exhibition game against the St. Louis Cardinals.