The Future of Solar Site Vegetation Management
What can be done and grown under solar panels?
There are so many avenues that work hand in hand for vegetation management under solar panels. These things can work actively with grazing and don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Sheep are the gateway to aligning agriculture with energy production. Other possibilities include but are not limited to:
- Growing crops - using the land to keep producing while also creating energy via solar panels. Crops like grapes, tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, etc.
- Chicken tractors - producing chickens that are rotationally grazed, add minerals to the soil and are ready for market in about 8 weeks. The other model uses egg producers and can help supply the local area with farm fresh eggs, places like bakeries or event venues.
- Ducks and Geese - Geese are true grass-fed poultry and great foragers. It takes little to manage them and domestic geese are not as aggressive as wild geese. Ducks also make great birds on pasture. Neither will climb on or use the panels or wires.
- Growing out Turkeys.
- Using Flerd: Flocks and herds working together for grazing. At Kitchen Sink Farm we rotate the following animals together and or following one another. The Sheep and the Cows rotate together, the chickens go in after them along with the Ducks/Geese, and lastly the pigs come through for cleanup. The system works together to benefit the whole and each is a dead-end host for the other parasites.