Our president, Jason Webster of Green Pastures Farm, has started on a solar grazing adventure and hopes to lead the way for other St. Croix breeders. He started making plans with an undisclosed company as part of a land management program in 2023. There were many things to discuss, including fencing and seeding needs, liability insurance, water access, and more. Finally, at the end of April, Jason delivered 42 St. Croix lambs, all about three months old, to a rather extensive solar field. The lambs spent a few days in a staging pen before they moved onto the solar field to graze.
As part of the project, Jason is closely monitoring the lambs’ growth. The average weight on April 22, the week before they went to the solar field, was 38 pounds. One month later on May 29, the lambs averaged 50 pounds, meaning they had gained an average of 12 pounds in 30 days. On August 5, the average weight of the group was 65 pounds, for another gain of 15 pounds. The final average daily gain for the group was 0.26 pounds per day. These gains are a testament to the quality of forage available in solar grazing and the genetics of the lambs.
Jason hopes to develop a model that others can use when developing partnerships to use sheep to graze solar fields as a management tool.
