Livestock Guardian Dogs for Solar Grazing: Feeding and Feeding Stations

July 25, 2024/ASGA

We invited Bill Costanzo (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension) and solar grazier Amanda Stoffels back for another discussion on using livestock guardian dogs (LGD) on solar sites!

For this Teatime, Bill Copresented on feeding and feeding stations. He’ll give you an overview of nutrition/feed requirements, feeder types, feeder improvements, feeding station designs, jump gate designs, and body condition scoring. Amanda showed her mobile feeding system on solar.

In the fall, we’ll have a follow up Teatime where Bill and Amanda will cover socialization & introducing dogs to a flock. There they will discuss socialization methods, socialization procedures, initial training methods, results of AgriLife bonding research, adding dogs to new flock, and adding new dogs to an established pack.

Guardian dogs are being used widely by solar graziers to reduce predation. Both Bill and Amanda are great resources on deploying guardian dogs with sheep. Amanda uses livestock guardian dogs to protect her sheep and greatly reduce predation while they rotationally graze the solar fields in North Texas. Bill cares for and manages over 20 LGDs at the Texas A&M AgriLife Center in San Angelo and its research ranches in Menard, Sonora, and Ozona. Before taking his position at Texas A&M AgriLife, Bill used livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) on his farm flock of wool sheep in Northern California.

You can view the recording of their 2023 Teatime that provided a broad overview of using LGDs on solar. It was a very informative introduction to LGDs that every solar grazier should watch!

Texas Livestock Guardian Dog Association: https://texaslgdassoc.org/

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