{"id":304,"date":"2026-05-08T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=304"},"modified":"2026-05-08T09:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:00:14","slug":"solar-ranch-aims-to-prove-grazing-cattle-under-the-panels-is-a-farmland-win-win-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=304","title":{"rendered":"Solar ranch aims to prove grazing cattle under the panels is a farmland win-win"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

CHRISTIANA, Tenn.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span>From a distance, the small solar farm in central Tennessee looks like others that now dot rural America, with row upon row of black panels absorbing the sun\u2019s rays, creating a flow of clean electricity.<\/p>\n

Read more Elon Musk\u2019s Tesla compensation totals $158 billion for 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

But beneath the panels is lush pasture, not gravel, enjoyed by a small herd of cattle that spends their days munching grass and resting in the shade.<\/p>\n

Silicon Ranch, which owns the 40-acre farm in Christiana, outside Nashville, believes cattle-grazing is the next frontier in so-called agrivoltaics, which mostly has involved growing crops or grazing sheep beneath the panels.<\/p>\n

The solar company debuted the project last week and will spend the next year working to demonstrate to farmers that much larger herds of cattle also can thrive at solar sites. If successful, advocates say, that could jump-start new projects to meet the soaring electricity demand driven by rapidly expanding data centers \u2014 without contributing climate-warming carbon emissions \u2014 and help cattle producers hold on to their land and livelihoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cSolar is one of the most powerful tools we have for cutting emissions and … is cost-competitive with fossil fuels,\u201d said Taylor Bacon, a doctoral student at Colorado State University who has studied ecological outcomes at solar grazing sites. \u201cI think we\u2019re starting to see enough research that, when you do it well, the land use can be more of an opportunity than a downside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making room for cattle<\/h2>\n

Though there are far more cattle than sheep in the U.S., their size poses challenges at solar sites, where both expensive equipment and the animals \u2014 which can weigh more than half a ton \u2014 must be protected. <\/p>\n

Solar panels equipped with tracking can pivot to near-vertical angles to capture the sun\u2019s rays, leaving little room underneath for cattle. Simply raising the panels is cost-prohibitive because of the amount of steel required. So Silicon Ranch raised the panels a little but also developed software that workers activate to turn the panels close to horizontal when cattle are grazing, giving them room to wander, said Nick de Vries, the company\u2019s chief technology officer.<\/p>\n

Workers rotate the cattle \u2014 currently 10 cows and their calves \u2014 between paddocks every few days so panels on the ungrazed portion of the site operate normally, generating a supply of roughly 5 megawatts of electricity for Middle Tennessee Electric, a rural electric co-op. <\/p>\n

The hope is that the technology eventually will be adopted more broadly, company officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it works,\u201d De Vries said. \u201cBut you need to prove it to other people.\u201d <\/p>\n

What are the benefits for farmers?<\/h2>\n

For solar companies, agricultural land is generally easier to develop than other types of sites. But many farmers \u2014 and communities \u2014 will need to be convinced that solar grazing will benefit them because of past practices that destroyed topsoil and took land out of production permanently.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many agricultural stakeholders, it is offensive to see high-quality farmland getting graded and piled when that\u2019s a farm family\u2019s legacy,\u201d said Ethan Winter, national smart solar director at American Farmland Trust.<\/p>\n

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But he sees potential for solar grazing partnerships to help farmers keep their land in production and earn extra income at a time when it\u2019s increasingly difficult to earn money farming and ranching alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgriculture is in a really tough spot right now\u201d due to trade wars, climate extremes, increased costs and pressure to sell, Winter said. \u201cSo maybe this is our moment where we can be helping states meet their energy needs and do that in a way that\u2019s providing new opportunities for farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silicon Ranch this year will have almost 15,000 acres of pasture being grazed \u2014 mostly by sheep \u2014 since launching five years ago, and is working with ranchers, farmers, university researchers and others to adopt best practices for keeping soils and animals healthy.<\/p>\n

What they\u2019re finding is that pasture beneath solar panels retains more moisture, making it more drought tolerant, said Anna Clare Monlezun, a rancher and rangeland ecosystem scientist who\u2019s working on the Tennessee project. Grazing in the shade also leaves animals less prone to heat stress, enabling them to gain more weight and drink less water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are more win-wins than trade-offs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sheep already have proved to be a good fit for solar sites, with more than 130,000 acres grazed as of 2024, a number that certainly has grown, said Kevin Richardson, senior director of the American Solar Grazing Assn.<\/p>\n

But for cattle, the industry still has to overcome site-design challenges and be able to scale up operations while also developing appropriate economic incentives for ranchers, Richardson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we have that, I think we\u2019ll see more solar sites using cattle or multi-species grazing with sheep and cattle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Farmers often earn about $1,000 an acre by leasing their land for solar, easily 10 times more than what they historically earned through traditional agriculture, said Winter, with the Farmland Trust. That can help them to diversify operations, pay down debt and buy more land.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019ll start to hear more interest from farmers who are up against a serious financial wall right now and looking for income diversification opportunities that keep land in production,\u201d Winter said. \u201cWe need and want to grow America\u2019s energy capacity but not at the expense of our best farmland or at the expense of agricultural livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trees that survived L.A.\u2019s wildfires are dying at alarming rate. Can they be saved?<\/a><\/p>\n

Webber and Bickel write for the Associated Press. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Tennessee solar developer is betting that cattle-grazing and solar panels can coexist \u2014 and benefit farmers as well as the electric grid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate"],"yoast_head":"\nSolar ranch aims to prove grazing cattle under the panels is a farmland win-win - California Relocation Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=304\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Solar ranch aims to prove grazing cattle under the panels is a farmland win-win - California Relocation Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Tennessee solar developer is betting that cattle-grazing and solar panels can coexist \u2014 and benefit farmers as well as the electric grid.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=304\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"California Relocation Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-08T09:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b85b48ca4c2015dd056e0e9c18912121\"},\"headline\":\"Solar ranch aims to prove grazing cattle under the panels is a farmland win-win\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-08T09:00:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304\"},\"wordCount\":954,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/2808d630cde5de28095b41e06874ff03-5-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Climate\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304\",\"name\":\"Solar ranch aims to prove grazing cattle under the panels is a farmland win-win - California Relocation Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/2808d630cde5de28095b41e06874ff03-5-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-08T09:00:14+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=304#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/2808d630cde5de28095b41e06874ff03-5-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/2808d630cde5de28095b41e06874ff03-5-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Cattle graze under solar panels Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at a farm in Christiana, Tenn. 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