🔊 Grazing on Solar Farms, Mobilizing Goats, and Finding Farm Dogs – with Aaron Steele
A few months ago, one of my coworkers asked me if I knew anything about solar grazing. She said that with all of the solar farms going in, it seemed like a major opportunity to get grazing animals back on the landscape. I said that I didn’t know much about it, but that I also wanted to learn more.
Just a couple weeks later, I found myself at the Practical Farmers of Iowa Conference, listening to a presentation called “A Bright Future with Solar Grazing”. The presentation was being given by an Iowa farmer and entrepreneur named Aaron Steele. And as it turned out, he was also a podcast host!
In the latest episode of the Perennial AF podcast, I talk with Aaron about what he’s learned about grazing on solar farms. We quickly realized that many of the challenges of grazing under solar panels are similar to the challenges of grazing under trees in a silvopasture system.
Show Notes & Links:
Farm Dog Podcast – hosted by Aaron Steele
Wisconsin Working Stock Dog Association
American Solar Grazing Association
2023 Solar Farm Summit and Agrivoltaics Expo – March 13th-15th, 2023
Solar Grazing 101 Webinar – Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT)
Goats On The Go®
EQIP Practice 314: “Biological Control With Grazing Animals” – (NRCS EQIP funding can cover up to half the cost of brush management with goats or other livestock)
Midwest Grazing Exchange – this matchmaking site helps landowners and livestock herd owners connect
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More from Perennial AF
🔊 Thick as Thieves with Samantha Bosco
In this episode of Perennial AF, we’re listening back to another presentation from our 2022 Perennial Farm Gathering, and we’ll be hearing from Samantha Bosco, a postdoctoral fellow at the USDA National Agroforestry Center, who conducted research on temperate nut trees for her Ph.D. work at Cornell University. Samantha’s presentation covered a lot of ground from how forest composition can be influenced by the personalities of foraging animals to the non-binary nature of agroforestry and its connections to social justice and queerness in nature.
🔊 The Institute’s Roots: 10th Anniversary Conversation with Keefe Keeley and Kevin Wolz
This year is the tenth anniversary of the Savanna Institute, and in our latest podcast episode, we’re looking back at the institute’s roots. Host Jacob Grace talks with two people who have been at the core of the Savanna Institute over the last ten years: Kevin Wolz...
Our 10-Year Perennial Report
When the Savanna Institute started in earnest in 2013 by a small volunteer group in Illinois, few supports existed for perennial farmers. Ten years later, a network of demonstration farms, technical service providers, and social enterprises now serve Midwest farmers that want to plant trees. This year’s Perennial Report is a retrospective on the Savanna Institute and our last decade’s worth of work to lay the groundwork for widespread agroforestry. Thank you to everyone who helped us grow along the way!
🔊 Thick as Thieves with Samantha Bosco
🔊 The Institute’s Roots: 10th Anniversary Conversation with Keefe Keeley and Kevin Wolz
🔊 Agroforestry and the Artist’s Way
🔊 Grazing on Solar Farms, Mobilizing Goats, and Finding Farm Dogs – with Aaron Steele
🔊 New Forest Farm Tour with Mark Shepard