Todd Sluis is happy to send his kids over to mow your lawn, so long as you don't mind the smell.

"You have to be careful that they don't get into your flowers because they might eat them, but they're not noisy," Sluis said.

He's not talking about his children -- he's talking about his goats. Sixty goats to be exact, and for $10 an animal, he'll bring them out to your property to trim up weeds and eat unwanted brush and overgrowth.

"They're used a lot for hillsides and ditch lines -- areas that can be dangerous for people to be working in," Sluis said. "You send the goats in there and they eat just about everything."

Sluis is the owner of Goat Mowers, a family-operated company from West Olive, Mich., that rents out goat and sheep services to people in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio who are looking for alternative ways to clear overgrowth and trim hard to reach places.

"Some people don't want to use herbicides, and there are some areas where you just can't use equipment," Sluis said. "This is a pretty low-impact way of pushing weeds back. There aren't any other companies in this area that do what we do."

Sluis and a team of 25 goats hit the road for the first time last week, taking on several private maintenance jobs in Chesterton. Sluis said the average goat can clear 183 square feet per day. Goat rental is typically for two days or more.

"Usually if someone calls, we try and get pictures of the area they want cleared and get an idea of the amount of vegetation they want taken down," he said. "Then we'll quote them based on what the picture tells us and the measurements of the area."

One advantage to goat labor is that the animals can work on hillsides and rough terrains that are otherwise inaccessible to people, Sluis said.

"It's less of a risk for humans," he said.

As for the goats, Sluis said he has them very well-behaved.

"They can get a little rambunctious when we unload them for the first time, but they calm down. They stay where they're supposed to."

Sluis said most of his business is gathered through word-of-mouth marketing and people who stop to see the goats in action.

"People see us working and they suddenly think of uses they might have for goats," Sluis said. "They seem to like it."