The Goat Grazing Superhuman

How did Adam Ledvina, the one-man powerhouse behind Iowa Kiko Goats and Blue Collar Goatscaping, get into goat grazing, and how does he manage up to 1000 goats all by himself?

May 11, 2025

Adam Ledvina

Companies: Blue Collar Goatscaping and Iowa Kiko Goats

Service area: Iowa and the Surrounding States

Primary Service: Private land management and conservation

Employees: 0

Herding/Gaurdian Dogs: None

Years in Operation: 2013-2025

Average price: $600 per acre

How did Ledvina get into Goat Grazing?

Adam Ledvina grew up in small-town Iowa, surrounded by agriculture of all types, and enjoyed helping his grandparents on their farms. Almost by osmosis, he developed a passion for all things related to animals and agriculture, so upon graduating high school, he studied conservation, biology, and natural resources at Central Iowa.

After college, he entered the field of conservation and worked for Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources, where he held various management positions doing vegetation surveys, animal surveys, and even bird counts. Eventually he ended up in California, where he worked for a land management company doing work all over the state. It was there, fighting invasive weeds to help prevent wildfires, that the idea of goat grazing began to form.

According to Ledvina, most of the methods used to eliminate invasive plants to help prevent the wildfires that plague California include the use of large, expensive equipment or herbicides, both methods which often have extreme drawbacks.

Talking about the drawbacks of heavy machinery, Ledvina explained that on top of the machines costing $150,000 and up, “you're just leaving devastation and you're turning and tearing up erosion. You got soil health concerns and erosion concerns and water pollution concerns.”

He also emphasized his dislike of herbicides, explaining they can cause sickness in the farmers using them and have unintended impacts on the rest of the ecosystem.

Wanting to do better for the environment and protect farmers, he explained that the idea to use goats instead was almost a natural leap to make, stating, “It's just what a goat does, and half my classes were about invasive management and native land restoration, and you just get the idea like, ‘Well, goats eat browse, and all the problem species are browse. So let's get browsers.”

Mechanical Brush Control

Farmer Spraying Herbicides

Vs.

Goats Grazing a Giant Hill

With the idea in mind, Ledvina set out to curate a herd goats best fit for the job. He experimented with pygmy, Kiko, Boer, Spanish, Nigerian dwarfs, and even fainting goats. After about two years, he settled on Kiko goats. Explaining this decision he said ,“I ended up going full steam with the breed that had the least negatives and the most positives.” This appears to have paid off because his herd has only grown stronger and more numerous since then. Now, depending on the time of year, he manages anywhere between 500 and 1000 goats.

So how in the world does he run such a big operation all by himself? Is he some sort of superhuman!?

He might be! At the peak of the grazing season, Ledvina simultaneously manages 12 different grazing herds spread over 8 different counties. By the end of each grazing season, those herds will have grazed over 2000 acres.

Rolls of Premier1 Fencing

The logistical nightmare of keeping the goats in the desired grazing area is just one of many reasons why his ability to do this is so impressive. Ledvina finds a way though and explained the multiple fencing strategies he implements. His primary strategy is a portable fence made of electric mesh from Premier1 Supplies, of which he has over 500 rolls, equating to nearly 10 miles of fencing. Another equally important strategy he uses is a fenceless system by No Fence. No Fence uses satellite-linked electric collars to keep the goats confined in a virtual fence, beeping at them when they are leaving the boundary and proceeding to shock them if they leave it altogether.

Premier1 Electric Mesh Fencing

No Fence- Virtual Fence System

Ledvina's goats following him to the trailer

Ledvina sets up the fences ahead of time so the goats can get right to eating when they get there. He uses a 24-foot gooseneck that hauls between 70 and 100 goats and when it is time to load up, his goats are so well trained that he doesn't even need a stock dog to herd them into the trailer.

Oftentimes these herds are left in their pens for days at a time, and naturally many people might think he must have a bunch of livestock guardian dogs to keep them safe, but they would be surprised to learn that he actually doesn’t have any. 

When asked why, he recounted a story where having a guardian dog backfired horribly for a different goat grazier. The goat grazier was doing a job when the dog of a nearby neighbor jumped the fence and got in with the goats. The guardian dog did what he was supposed to, attacking the intruder, but when the neighbor saw, he jumped over the fence and tried to separate the two and was bitten by the guardian dog. After that, the man who was bitten sued the goat grazier, forcing him to go out of business.

On top of liability issues, Ledvina explained his goats simply do not need a dog to protect them, saying, “We've been working on this specific variant of our breed for long enough that we pay attention to those mothers who are very aggressive both at having kids, at foraging, and at protecting their kids. So I'll have a friend come over, they bring their dog and pretty soon that dog doesn't want anything to do with goats anymore because it got a little curious, went after a goat, or after a kid. That mother came out of the bush and just beat that dog to a pulp, got it into a corner…”

These supermoms sure look ready to protect their kids!!

 What’s next for Ledvina?

Ledvina has an exhaustive list of people who want his goats to come to graze, driven primarily by word of mouth and client testimonials. He takes great pride in helping his customers manage their land. When asked his approach he explained his philosophy is "Farm the best conserve the rest". Given that the land the farmers can't farm is often hilly and inaccessible for normal agricultural practices, the goats ability to transverse the terrain with ease, makes them the perfect tool for the job. 

Market Goats weighing 40-100 pounds

On top of grazing, Ledvina also sells hundreds of goats per year for meat. This is partly why he selected Kiko goats, since they make good graziers and do very well in the meat market. According to him 99% of the male goats will be sold for meat, and about half of the females.

Using goats to conserve land, and selling others for meat was the perfect combination for Ledvina to be able to live his passion. During the podcast he said, “(Goat Grazing) is an environmentally friendly way of taking care of the brush, and it also creates meat as a byproduct. My love and appreciation for agriculture and conservation working together”.

For him, goat grazing is a fulfilling endevor that he does not plan on stopping anytime soon. Despite the massive task of managing nearly 1000 grazing goats, when asked if he ever gets tired he said, “You know, (if) you do what you love, you never work a day in your life. And that is very true for this. And I'm seeing it… Like at the end of the day, like you're exhausted, but you feel so good…the hardest part is the work but the best part is the work”

So at the end of the day, maybe the secret to being a superhuman goat grazier, who manages over 1000 goats, and grazes over 2000 acres per year, is simply loving what you do.

Where can you find him?

Ledvina is on facebook at both Iowa Kiko Goats and Blue Collar Goatscaping.

Ledvina sporting a beard and bottlefeeding newborn a kid.