multiflora rose

We have a lot of the invasive multiflora rose on our property and in the surrounding area. I would love to get rid of it or at least control it from further spreading. Does anyone have experience with getting rid of this stuff. All the local county and state information is chemical herbiside pushing. Will goats eat it? What about continually cutting it back? The cows will not touch it and it is wicked to try to walk through it.
kent

I have read that goats eat the rose hips it produces, but I also figure that they would find a lot of more attractive browse first.

Rose hips are selling for some sort of astronomical figure in the health food store here..something like $80 a pound  or something.. even if they are dried that seems like pretty high cost goat feed

Maybe  try cutting it back very severely and then heavilly mulching with cardboard and then sawdust  or some such to hold the cardboard in place, from the base of whatever plants you are leaving to at least a foot past the remaining stubs.  Or cut it way back and turn pigs in there and see if they will root out the roots for you.

I think, and if I'm wrong someone will be quick to point it out:) that if you keep any green plant from light and water long enough it will soon start to struggle. (Seeds are a different story).

I remove these rose bushes all the time.  I usually take a front end loader and smash the bushes down so I can get to the base of the bush.  Then I put the bucket lip angled down slightly and positioned right at the base and drive forward.  Once it starts to come out of the ground you might have to back up and get the lip of the bucket under the roots.  This rips the majority of the roots out and if your careful can be a lot less messy than digging them out with a shovel.  I lop all the branches off at the base and shake the dirt off the roots.  Move onto the next bush.  You can also wrap a chain around them and pull them out.

generally the roots aren't too deep, you might get some strong leather gloves and pull it out while it is dormant for the winter.

Brenda is right, it looks like a big prickery disaster but when you get down to the base it's just a few main stems and the roots aren't too serious.  If the bushes aren't huge get some loppers and gloves and pull.  They come out so clean there's no need to spray anything.

Galen M wrote:
I remove these rose bushes all the time.  I usually take a front end loader and smash the bushes down so I can get to the base of the bush.  Then I put the bucket lip angled down slightly and positioned right at the base and drive forward.  Once it starts to come out of the ground you might have to back up and get the lip of the bucket under the roots.  This rips the majority of the roots out and if your careful can be a lot less messy than digging them out with a shovel.  I lop all the branches off at the base and shake the dirt off the roots.  Move onto the next bush.  You can also wrap a chain around them and pull them out.

Good idea Galen.
Never thought about that! Don't know why, as last summer I pulled out a 6 foot manitoba maple that kept trying to grow under the house with some rope wrapped around the stem and tied to the trailer hitch on the truck.  If it'll work on those things then it should certainly take out roses, if they are too big to pull by hand.

Thanks for the replies. Except for the pasture, meaning anywhere things were left to grow over the years, the rose are there. They have had decades to spread and grow. We have maybe 8 acres that have some of this growing to some degree. Now that we have had a freeze and the under growth is dying back it is easier to see the bases of the plants. I was hoping to get rid of them with a few goats, but it looks like it will be more labor intensive.
Thanks, Kent