Sheep Producers Can Benefit From Solar Grazing

The latest trend in the sheep industry involves grazing lambs on land with solar arrays, Joe Pozzi secretary and treasurer of the American Sheep Industry, and California sheep producer shares his insight on the issue.

“You have to have it tied to an agricultural production base. So they need to have grazing with it. So this tied to an agricultural commodity, because they're taking agricultural land technically out of out of production. So the county general plan, which I think is smart says, Okay, you could we could do the solar project here, but you need to have it incorporated with it with some sort of agriculture. That's where the sheep come in, in our cattle.”

Pozzi says some individuals are grazing on solar farms ranging from five to 7000 acres, while others are undertaking similar initiatives on smaller operations.

“And it doesn't matter what size the biggest thing is, is that it's providing the service for the solar company because it's taking care of the grazing within their enclosed area around their solar panels. And it's providing income for a sheep producer that's not coming from the wool not coming from the lamp, even those are those are still incomes coming from them, but it's another added income that that she could harvest for that landowner.”

ASI recently wrapped up their annual meeting where solar farm experts talked about the integration of sheep grazing on solar farms. This diversification effort aims to sustain the viability of sheep farming in the US according to Pozzi.