Outrageous California wage change will put wildfire-fighting goats out of business, owners say

Owners of brush-eating goats enlisted to help prevent California wildfires say a new statewide wage law will put them out of business.At least 20% of the state’s 500,000 sheep and 125,000 goats are used for targeted grazing, with the animals consume grass and other vegetation to reduce wildfire risk, according to a March report from the California Department of Industrial Relations.But the cost of employing herders for goats became significantly more expensive this month — up to $240,000 a year — due to a minimum wage exception that expired July 1.“We will effectively sell these goats to slaughter, and we will go out of business and probably file bankruptcy on this business and be done with it in the state of California,” Western Grazers owner Tim Arrowsmith told KRCR.Goat herders are often on-duty 24 hours a day since they’re required to live on-site near their herds and be on-call in case of any emergency such as illness or predators.Herders have been exempt from California’s overtime laws, but in 2016 California lawmakers enacted a measure that led the Department of Industrial Relations to set an alternative minimum monthly wage for such employees.

As of 2025, that was $2,934 a month in regular wages and $1,887 in overtime wages, or $4,820 a month.However, the statute only applied to sheep herders, meaning goat herders would have to be paid the $20,000 per month minimum wage.In the 2023 budget, lawmakers responded by letting goat herders be paid the alternative wage until July of this year.Now that it’s expired, ranchers are facing what they see as an existential crisis unless lawmakers act again soon.“We really provide a needed service, and it benefits all of California,” Green Goat Landscapers co-owner Brian Allen told ABC7.

“Goats go where people and machines can’t go, and that really reduces that risk of wildfire.” Higher wages from the 2016 law have already forced ranchers to adjust by assigning more animals to each herder, accord...