ASGA Teatime Replay: From Struggling Dairy Farmer to Successful Solar Grazier (+ How to Grow Efficiently)
Jonathan Northrop (Watertown, NY) joined us to discuss how he transitioned from a struggling dairy farming business to become a successful sheep farmer and solar grazier, combined with a direct-consumer meat business and hay.
Jonathan and Jen Northrop now run close to 450 sheep (up to ~900 in the summer) on 8 community-scale solar sites in upstate New York. The future is looking bright and they are now looking for opportunities to expand.
Lewis Fox co-hosted this one and lead the a great discussion with Jon about he got started in solar grazing and how he got to where he is now. They covered several points useful for solar graziers:
- Pricing and managing your costs
- Reaching out to solar companies and thinking about contracts
- What distance from the home farm you’ll take contracts
- Doing odd jobs and supplemental mowing on solar sites
- The possibilities of solar grazing as your main revenue stream
- Challenges and opportunities for growing efficiently
- The opportunities utility scale solar sites offer and how they compare to community sites
- and more!
Jon and Jen’s story is an inspiring one and there will be lessons there for new graziers and graziers looking to scale up their operation.
Hosts: Kevin Richardson (ASGA) and Lewis Fox
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