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If you’ve thought about starting a new livestock venture, or you’re interested in farming but don’t have any land, here’s an opportunity to consider: solar grazing. It’s a practice where sheep producers are paid to graze their animals under solar panels.
Collin Kennedy of Knightstown is one Indiana sheep farmer who grazes his flock on a solar farm.
”The sheep are actually doing the vegetation management on the solar site. All these solar sites have a really good exterior fence, so all we’re doing is bringing the sheep in there and letting them eat that grass and keep it down so that it does not shade over the panels and block those panels from getting sun.”
Kennedy says it’s easier to control the vegetation on the solar farm by grazing sheep than by using a mower or weed eater.
“The sheep can kind of freely move around. And the other thing is, it’s getting harder to find the labor to actually have people out there to mow it and to keep that down. For the sheep, they go out there and do the job and can get around all that small stuff.”
For Kennedy, having the access to the land is one of the biggest benefits of solar grazing.
“It is so hard, especially in Indiana, where it’s very competitive for land between crop farming and things of that nature, it can be nearly impossible to have access to the land to even graze them on. So that’s an advantage, and the advantage is the solar company actually paying you to do the service. So that kind of gives you an extra revenue stream to be able to get more sheep or improve your buildings or things of that nature.”
He adds that when it comes to taking care of the sheep, solar grazing does take some adjustment.
“You have one out there that has a foot issue, you’re not there at home with your home barn and your corral and everything to where it’s just, yeah, run them in the corral and give her a shot or trim her feet. So I’d say that’s the biggest issue is just trying to stay on top of that and making sure you’re able to round those up and go through everybody. It’s a little different just being out in the open like that.”
Kennedy says that more sheep farmers and solar companies are looking into solar grazing.
“For sheep farming, I see it as a great opportunity to grow and expand because of the economic benefit of it. We’re going to need a lot more sheep in the area if things go the way they’re going.”
Click below to hear the full interview with Collin Kennedy. To learn more about solar grazing, visit the American Solar Grazing Association website.
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