Chasin Goat Grazing by Chase & Emma Cianfichi
Our speakers for January 30, 2025, were Chase and Emma Cianfichi for Chasin Goat Grazing, a family-owned goat and sheep grazing company. Both Chase and Emma attended Fresno State University and majored in animal science. Emma earned her master’s degree in Agricultural Education from Cal. State Chico. She is the granddaughter of Carolyn Anderson. Chasin Goat Grazing LLC specializes in contract grazing using sheep and goats for effective fire prevention services throughout California. The company has ongoing contracts with public agencies, including water and fire districts, and with a variety of private landowners. In Sonoma County they work at Fountaingrove, Keysight, and Sonoma Water, to name a few.
The company contracts with public and private landowners to graze its animals using targeted grazing. Targeted grazing optimizes the time, frequency and intensity in which the animals graze. They do not allow the animals to graze through the vegetation down to dirt because leaving the soil without cover can cause flooding and excessive mud. Chase says it is a giant game of leap frog. In a large field they create a pen, allow grazing to about 2-4”, and then move the animals to a new pen. The benefits of targeted grazing are fire fuel mitigation, carbon sequestration, putting more nitrogen back into the soil, and fostering native plants by focusing on grazing non-natives. The company’s goats and sheep graze around Spring Lake building firebreaks.
The business requires a variety of equipment, including a heavy truck that can hold 145 sheep. They use electric fencing with posts every 6-8 feet. They also use solar panels, stock trailers, signs, insurance. The one thing they need on every job is access to water. They also use dogs to watch the stock and look out for coyotes and other predators, including several Great Pyrenees and a Border Collie. They use Boer Spanish Cross and Kiko goats, and Dorper Sheep on their projects. In the summer they normally run about 1,900 animals. They take the animals down to the Fresno area in the winter during rainstorms; it does not rain as much down there and the animals do better in a drier climate. The animals have an 8-year life cycle, and they routinely monitor how animals are progressing as they age. 250-300 goats can get through one acre in a day! They employ six herders from Mexico and Brazil, most of whom have worked for the company for many years.
Thank you Chase and Emma for the great presentation about your remarkable company and its many benefits to Sonoma County!
