One conversation with a farmer in Iowa changed how I look at solar farms

I was visiting family in Ames last summer and stopped at a local diner. An older farmer named Gary told me he was against the big solar project going in nearby until the developer worked with him to put sheep under the panels. He said the shade helped the grass and the sheep kept the weeds down, and now he actually makes more per acre than with corn. Has anyone else seen livestock integration make a difference in your area?

2 comments

2 Comments

simonp476d ago

That's an interesting story, but it's the exception not the rule around here. I've seen several solar farms go in near my part of the Midwest and the livestock integration is rare. Most developers just want to put up the panels on good farmland and walk away. The real problem is the land gets tied up for 25-30 years, so a young farmer can't ever buy it or pass it down. And those solar panels do change the ground temperature and water runoff in ways that hurt the soil long term, no matter what you graze under them.

leelewis6d ago

Hold on, I gotta push back a little here. In my experience, the whole "land is ruined forever" thing gets repeated a lot but I just haven't seen the data backing it up. Those grazing setups actually help with the runoff issue by keeping the ground vegetation low and the soil from drying out and cracking. As for the land being tied up, that's a real concern for sure, but it's not like the farmer who leases it can't also use that steady income to buy other land or invest in their operation. Plus, those 30 year leases usually have clauses for decommissioning the panels and restoring the soil, so the land isn't necessarily gone for good. I think a lot of this fear is just the unknown, and the reality is coming around faster than people give it credit for.