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Sheep under solar panels: how one northern Minnesota farm fits into the green energy push

A livestock producer in northern Minnesota plans to incorporate solar grazing into the operation.

Ellie Trout is a fourth-generation farmer on her family’s diversified cow-calf and sheep farm in Itasca County and says the goal is to promote green energy while keeping agricultural land in production.

“Running sheep underneath solar panels. As our state pushes for green energy and solar farms are popping up everywhere, especially my area. So with the hopes of combining agriculture and energy.”

She tells Brownfield many farms in her area have been sold or leased to solar projects.

“So the infrastructure started on that this summer and is supposed to be done this winter, so hopefully within the next year or two as these solar farms continue to pop up we can continue to try to work with them on grazing.”

Solar grazing is the practice of using sheep and occasionally other livestock to manage vegetation underneath and around utility-scale solar panels.