Sheep Industry News June 2025

ASGA Reaches Across the Array to Solar Companies

R epresentatives from a dozen solar companies were on hand on May 9 in Sulphur Springs, Texas, to learn more about how and why they should use sheep on their sites. The What to Expect When You’re Expecting Sheep workshop was put on by the American Solar Grazing Association and followed a three-day American Lamb Board workshop for sheep producers looking to get into solar grazing. Both workshops visited Enel North America’s Stampede Solar Project in nearby Saltillo, Texas. Sheep on the site are managed by JR Howard’s Texas Solar Sheep. While many of the workshop attendees were there to earn ASGA’s solar grazing management certification for solar industry profession als, only a few were completely unfamiliar with the concept of running sheep on a solar site. Enel employees were plentiful in the crowd and the company is running 6,000 sheep on 18,000 acres at various sites in the state. “Dual-use solar used to be an innovative technique that only a few companies were doing,” said Enel’s Jesse Puckett. “But now it’s really changing the face of the industry while providing opportunities for local farmers and sheep grazers to support their families. “We first started grazing sites in 2017 in Minnesota. That was the very early days of solar grazing, and we worked with Minnesota Native Landscapes. And we’ve continued to work with them for many years now. That was really our first foray into grazing. It was a great oppor tunity for us to do something different, and now the whole industry is doing it.” Puckett added that it’s becoming more common for solar companies to plan sites with sheep grazing in mind during the design phase of the project. Grazing sheep on a site helps the companies balance public percep tion and keep land in agricultural use while also producing renewable energy. Many solar companies will only consider vegetation manage

ment proposals that include solar grazing in conjunction with mowing and spraying, as needed. There’s a place for all aspects of what Howard refers to as his hybrid model. “Sheep are a preventative tool,” said Reid Redden of Premier Solar Sheep in Texas and a former sheep extension specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife. “They can’t match the capacity of a mower, but the are highly effective at vegetation control.” Redden explained that sheep fit well under and around the solar panels with minimal chances of damage to the panels. And the shep herds who work with the sheep on a daily basis provide an extra set of eyes on the site. Working alongside Redden as a workshop instructor was ASGA Ad visory Board member Caroline Owens of Pennsylvania. She explained that grazers will generally setup temporary fencing – within the site’s permanent fences – and practice rotational grazing to maintain a site. And while water is a necessity, sheep are more efficient with water needs than cows and will travel farther from their water source, if allowed. One thing sheep won’t do is turn a solar site into a golf course. Solar companies shouldn’t expect well-manicured lawns from the sheep. They’ll graze plants to a variety of heights. But that isn’t a bad thing. Leaving cover on the ground helps to keep weeds from taking over and eliminates erosion issues. This is one reason the hybrid model is so popular in the solar industry. Solar grazers are tasked with developing a vegetation management program specifically for each site they work on. They might mow an overgrown area before turning out sheep in the area, or the might run sheep first and mow afterwards. They’re also tasked with spraying to kill noxious weeds and to eliminate vegetation around equipment, in park ing areas, etc. Solar grazers might even adjust their production cycle, choosing to lamb earlier than normal to take advantage of those extra mouths during the feed-heavy spring growing season.

Owens provided some insight into the minds of sheep, instructing attendees on the animals’ flight zone and flocking instinct, and pointed out the im portance of leaving gates the way you found them. If it’s open, it’s probably that way for a reason. If it’s closed, it’s definitely that way for a reason. “An open gate means new food to sheep, and they are fast and smart,” Owens said. “No sheep goes alone. If one escapes, the whole flock will probably escape.” Attendees also heard from a panel of experts that included ALB’s Cameron Maierle, solar grazer Chad Raines, Enel’s Joseph Quick of the Stampede Solar Project and Howard. One of the main topics they touched on was the importance of guard dogs

Premier Solar Sheep’s Reid Redden provides instruction to attendees.

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