ASGA Call 58: High Quality Forage & Cool-Season Hay at Solar Sites with Ohio State

September 7, 2022 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT

What are the possibilities for hay on solar sites?

For our September webinar, the folks from Ohio State Extension and Savion Energy will tell us about their experiments with cool-season hay and other high quality forages (crimson clover, alfalfa, teff grass) as effective vegetative cover for solar sites and discuss the implications for grazing.

The team from Ohio State includes Erich Romich, Braden Campbell, and Christine Gelley, and they’ll be joined by Sarah Moser from Savion Energy. They’ll discuss their findings, the challenges and benefits associated with growing hay on solar, and what these findings would mean for grazing sites, including the economics of it and the nutritional effects on sheep.

The talk will cover the implications for both utility-scale solar and smaller scale operations.

Hosts: Nick Armentrout of Spring Creek Farm and an ASGA Board Member and Kevin Richardson (ASGA), ASGA’s Outreach Coordinator, will host.

About the Speakers

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Eric Romich is an Ohio State University Extension Field Specialist for Energy Education. Serving as a statewide Extension Field Specialist since 2012, he works closely with private, public, and university partners to conduct research, develop extension programs, and teach in communities throughout the state. Romich’s energy programs focus on identifying best practices for energy management strategies in agriculture to enhance the overall environmental and economic conditions in Ohio communities.

Christine Gelley is an Extension Educator for Agriculture and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University stationed in Noble County. Specializing in forage quality and management in grazing and hay systems, she serves as the co-leader of the Ohio State Extension Forage and Sheep Teams. She is also an active member of the OSU Extension Energy Outreach Group, the OSU Beef Team, and Agronomic Crops team. An avid writer, videographer, and researcher, Christine strives each day to be an encouraging voice of reason to her clientele, while seeing challenges as opportunities and posing viable solutions to enhance the lives of Ohioans.

Brady Campbell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at The Ohio State University in the College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences currently serving as the State Small Ruminant Extension Specialist. Brady’s areas of interest and expertise range from animal health, nutrition, marketing, economics, pasture and parasite management, agrivoltaics, animal handling and husbandry, and much more. To further connect himself with the small ruminant industry, Brady actively raises purebred and commercial sheep with his family and supports the industry by serving as an ex-officio member on both the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association (OSIA) and Ohio Sheep and Wool Program (OSWP) board of directors, member of the American Sheep Industry (ASI) Production, Education, and Research Council, Texel director with the National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP), and President of the Texel Sheep Breeders Society.