Sheep Industry News December 2024

Convention Panel To Discuss Agrivoltaics

T he 2025 ASI Annual Convention will officially kick off in Scottsdale, Ariz., with a panel discussion on Agrivol taics. The Opening Session discussion will include three sheep producers and representatives from two solar companies. Lexi Hain – who founded the American Solar Grazing As sociation and served as its first executive director – will moder ate the session entitled Energizing the Sheep Industry With Solar , which will take place on Jan. 16 at 4 p.m. at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. Panelists for the session include: • Daniel Dotterer of Daniel Dotterer Farms in Pennsylvania. • Ryan Indart of Indart Solar Sheep Grazing in California. • Reid Redden of Premier Solar Sheep in Texas. • Loran Shallenberger of Silicon Ranch Corporation. • David Wen of the AES Corporation. Solar grazing has become the fastest growing segment of the American sheep industry in recent years, changing the way some sheep producers manage their flocks entirely and induc ing others from outside the industry to develop flocks of their own. Each of the three sheep producers come from multi-gen erational sheep operations, but each are the first generation in their families to move into the area of solar grazing. Earlier this year, Silicon Ranch opened a 26,000-square foot lambing barn at its Houston Solar Project in Houston County, Ga. “The lambing barn is a first-of-its-kind facility to be built, owned and operated by a solar company,” according to a compa ny press release. “Nashville-based Silicon Ranch is investing to build out its own agribusiness as a wholly owned subsidiary to support the company’s operations and to deliver positive ben efits to the land it owns and the communities where its projects are located. In just two years, the company’s flock of sheep has grown from less than 700 to more than 3,000 before the end of this year. “Construction of the barn was completed in late 2023, in time for lambing season. The facility is sized to house 400 ewes and their lambs at a time, and Silicon Ranch plans to lamb an nually in three separate waves to accommodate an eventual tar get of 1,200 ewes each year. Along with breeding its own sheep to adapt parasite resistance to survive and thrive in the South east, Silicon Ranch committed to participate in the National Sheep Improvement Program, with one of the largest flocks enrolled in the program. After lambing and prior to releasing each new lamb family from the barn to pasture, Silicon Ranch shepherds collect and record lamb birthweights, tag lambs with electronic IDs, scan lambs’ and ewes’ EIDs to record their

connection (pedigree) and take a needle-size tissue sample for genomic mapping of specific markers. The company then enters this data into the NSIP database. If you’d like to hear more about how sheep are reinvigorating the American sheep industry, make plans now to attend the ASI Annual Convention in Scottsdale. Online registration is open through Dec. 13. After that date, additional registrations will need to be handled onsite at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. Visit https://bit.ly/3BirOLo to register. You’ll also find more information on the full schedule of events, speakers, tours and making hotel reservations. The ASI Annual Convention is the one place where the entire American sheep industry comes together. Other groups meeting during the week include: American Lamb Board, ASI Women, Food and Fiber Risk Managers, Make It With Wool, National Lamb Feeders Association, National Livestock Pro ducers Association, National Sheep Improvement Program, National Sheep Industry Improvement Center, Sheep Genetics USA, Sheep Heritage Foundation, Sheep Venture Company and Western Range Association.

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