LEBANON, Ohio – Amanda and Brady Kirwan moved back to Amanda’s family farm in 2015. Except for the occasional job, they have been farming full-time ever since. They finally found their niche with their Ohio Solar Grazing business. Currently, they have 60 Katahdin sheep grazing at the Lebanon City Municipal site and plans for more to go to Mason, Ohio.

“We started with growing hops and that got us into sheep a little bit,” Amanda Kirwan said. “We have had laying hens and broiler chickens. We did a lot of direct marketing, farmers markets, home delivery, and all of that sort of thing. Once this (Ohio Solar Grazing) started, we realized we needed to put all of our energy into it.”

The couple, whose farm is near Hillsboro, Ohio, liked raising sheep. They knew that Ohio grows grass extremely well. Then solar farms started going in around them. They were aware that those solar farms would need vegetation management. They knew that in other places, people were doing solar grazing as a form of vegetation management.

“We joined a group called the American Solar Grazing Association,” Kirwan said. “They educated us. They do webinars. A lot of people in the Northeast are ahead of the curve (with solar grazing). We realized it was probably a pretty reliable business model especially since within a half-hour of our house there’s probably 10 to 15 thousand acres going into solar panels.”

The owner of an almost 150-acre site in Mason contacted them about three years ago wanting to rent their service. They signed a contract thinking that was a good way to get their foot in the door. They have had a lot of delays but are finally ready for sheep on the site.

“Our main flock is lambing right now, so we don’t want to be moving them around but once they’re finished lambing then we’ll be moving them to that site,” Kirwan said. “We have about 220 ewes; we have been growing as much as we can to be able to serve this market. We are expecting about 200 lambs in the next couple of weeks and we have about 100 already on the ground.”

They use mainly Katahdin sheep because they don’t need to be sheared, Kirwan said. They are good mothers and supposedly have less foot trouble.

This is the first year for the 60 sheep at the Lebanon site. That number will fluctuate; the right number in the spring is different from the right number in winter. To encourage the sheep to eat all the species of vegetation, the couple divided the area into sections. That way they can do controlled grazing, moving them about every three days. 

“If you have a 10-acre piece of ground, depending on the time of year, you might divide that up into 30 sections,” Kirwan said. “We use temporary electric fence, sometimes netting. We also use poly wire. Moving them about every three days helps keep their parasite load down as well. It takes three days for the eggs to hatch.”

They deliver water with a pull-behind trailer and use automatic waterers. On a hot day, the sheep might drink a gallon of water each. As the Kirwans live about an hour away from the site, they keep a check on the critters with a trail camera. They also do supplemental mowing and weed control at the site.

City of Lebanon officials are pleased with the job the sheep are doing. They have also planted pollinator-friendly plant species around the solar panels.

“The sheep are doing an excellent job of controlling grass around the solar panels,” said Scott Brunka, city manager.

Guy Augustin, deputy director of electric engineering, said the solar panels are on 38 acres of land subdivided into three large parcels, that are in the floodplain. There’s a total of 17,856 solar panels which generate 8 MW of energy on a normal sunny day.

Public reaction has been generally positive, Brunka said. Some people have expressed concerns about the safety of the sheep. Their concern is primarily with coyotes attacking them. The solar array is completely fenced in, offering protection for the sheep.

“There is a lot of misinformation (about grazing sheep under solar panels),” Kirwan said. “They have concerns about leeching from the panels (there is none). People say it is going to be really hot, but it is not – it is cool under the panels. Our sheep have never seen a barn. I know people have concerns about them having shelter, but they are going to have more shelter under solar panels than they do in a pasture. We probably should have a public information question and answer session.”