Entries by A. J. Puckett

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Multispecies Grazing: A Primer on Diversity

This publication discusses the principles and practices of grazing multiple species of livestock on pastures. Here, you’ll find a discourse on the benefits of multi species grazing on productivity and profitability, including its positive impacts on pasture diversity and health. Details related to these benefits include stocking-rate decisions, grazing pigs, planning and monitoring, predators and vegetation management. Familiarity with these topics can be useful in better understanding and developing agrisolar operations that include a variety of livestock.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Pasture-based Agrivoltaic Systems: Emissions and Energy Use of Integrated Rabbit Production

The goal of this study is to assess the environmental impacts of a novel pasture-based agrivoltaic concept: co-farming rabbits and solar PV. The study addresses the life cycle assessments of pasture-based agrivoltaic systems, including the emissions and energy use of integrated rabbit production. These topics are relevant to developing agrisolar operations that include the use of rabbits.

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Lamb Growth and Pasture Production in Agrivoltaic Production System

This study was conducted to compare lamb growth and pasture production under solar panels and in open pastures in Corvallis, Oregon in spring 2019 and 2020. The results from this grazing study indicated that grazing under solar panels can maintain higher carrying capacity of pasture toward summer, and land productivity could be increased up to 200% through combining sheep grazing and solar energy production on the same land.

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Herbage Yield, Lamb Growth and Foraging Behavior in Agrivoltaic Production System

This study was conducted to compare lamb growth and pasture production from solar pastures in agrivoltaic systems and traditional open pastures over 2 years in Oregon. Topics in focus in this study include experimental grazing management, herbage mass, land equivalent ratio and net return of spring grazing. These topics are useful when considering approaches to developing and managing agrisolar operations that include grazing.

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Grazing Sheep on Solar Sites in New York State: Opportunities and Challenges

This paper examines the current scope of sheep grazing in New York State and the benefits, opportunities, challenges, and barriers to scaling up the sheep industry to graze ground-mounted photovoltaic arrays for vegetation management. The study shows that there are similarities between USSE facilities and those of Distributed Solar Energy’s benefits, opportunities and challenges but that they are modified due to the larger scale of operations of the projects.

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Exploring Farming and Solar Synergies

This report explores the synergies between farming and solar photovoltaics with the premises that agricultural production on farmland should be maintained and farm profitability and soil health should be improved. The report states that siting solar facilities in Maryland is a major stumbling block to the progress of in-state solar energy generation and finding common ground and possible solutions to issues allows the state to proceed forward in developing agrisolar operations.