Sheep Industry News March 2025

Learning The Ropes of Solar Grazing

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be met by both parties in this business relationship. Indart’s Central California location means that his sheep are used to reduce wildfire fuel loads, saving energy asset managers from the threat posed by wildfires, and solar grazing has become the top revenue stream for his business. Redden is co-founder of Premier Solar Sheep in Texas and a former sheep and goat extension specialist for Texas A&M AgriLife. Redden agreed that water is the top issue that starts the conversation over suitability of a location for sheep graz ing. He pointed out that as sheep producers, “we’re really grass farmers” with important knowledge about vegetative manage ment that is valuable to energy operators. Dotterer comes from a long line of agricultural producers in Pennsylvania. He said jokingly, “Some people say I have a sheep problem,” but his family is constantly making changes to its operations to survive in agriculture. His top issues for site assessments are proper wire management and predator-proof perimeter fencing since the top predator on sheep in that area of the country is domestic dogs. THE SOLAR VIEW Wen of AES Corporation said that vegetation management is costly for the energy industry. With mowers charging $400 per acre per year for providing twice a year mowing services, that’s the rate that solar grazers are competing against. He noted that a medium-sized installation is about 500 acres. Sili con Ranch’s Shallenberger said that in the Southeastern portion of the country, the going rate is about $350 per acre per year, and sheep producers can run their sheep year-round on these sites. Hain noted that the average contract is for four years, but contract terms and rates might vary around the country. Wen said his company just needs the vegetation manage ment services and isn’t particularly concerned about what spe cies accomplishes the job. He said permit restrictions on solar projects often include provisions to keep vegetation heights to under six inches, and how that is achieved is up to the vegeta tive management contractor. He noted that if sheep won’t eat something in the installation, the producer might need to use a manual mower to comply with the vegetative management contract. Water can be a big issue for solar projects, Wen said, as some older installations don’t have water sources, and it might need to be hauled. But with 20-to-40-year lifespans for solar proj ects, installation of water wells is now more common. Shallenberger raises cattle in Tennessee but also works with utility scale solar grazing projects in 16 states with Silicon

merican sheep producers were able to learn the ins and outs from fellow producers involved in grazing their flocks among solar power installations at the

recent ASI Annual Convention in Scottsdale, Ariz. Reid Redden of Texas, Ryan Indart of California and Penn sylvania’s Daniel Dotterer were peppered with questions about how they got started in this industry, how it all works and pointers that producers should consider if they are interested in entering this emerging industry. David Wen of AES Corporation and Loran Shallenberger of Silicon Ranch Corporation rounded out the panel with perspectives from the solar companies that hire these vegeta tion managers. Lexie Hain – co-founder of the American Solar Grazing Association – guided the panel discussion, noting that producers weren’t simply grazing sheep in solar installations but are vegetative management specialists for agrivoltaics, the co-location of agriculture and solar energy production. SOLAR GRAZER PROFILE Hain began the session with a summary of the industry, not ing that both entities involved in an agrivoltaics contract must be profitable enterprises. This is not a “hey, you can graze here for free” situation as energy companies have distinct vegetative management goals and budgets, as do sheep producers. Hain said that a financial analysis conducted by the University of Western Ontario looked at two models for solar grazing, find ing that the more profitable model involves a producer grazing with his/her own ewes, rather than buying sheep at auction for solar grazing. A recent census of this grazing industry found the average age of solar producers is 45 years old, and these producers are solar grazing seasonally or year-round, Hain said. Two-thirds of producers utilize hair sheep, while the remaining third use wool sheep. Most producers own their own sheep, which are grazed across a total of about 130,000 acres around the nation. SITE CONSIDERATIONS Indart is a third-generation sheep producer who called his 2018 shift to grazing among solar installations “a game changer” as his business now produces three products: lamb, wool and vegetative management services. Indart said that the top issues that he considers when assessing the possibility of a project is access to water and proper wire management. “Realize that you are a service provider, not just a sheep farmer,” Indart said, and there are best practices that should

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