Solar Water System Installation

Many dark winter mornings and evenings have been spent planning out farm projects for this coming year and we look forward to communicating those with you as the year progresses. But as often happens when we are planning ahead, we spend considerable time looking back - to see what’s worked and what hasn’t.

We unveiled many of those projects as they happened, like the Ritz Cluck-In mobile chicken shelter/ art installation. However, as we reflected on 2021 we realized one interesting improvement got swallowed up by a busy summer and never made the newsletter.

But that is all for the best, because now I have reason, on a gloomy January day, to share images from a brighter, warmer time 😊

Last April we installed our first solar livestock water system! For several years we’ve been using solar power to energize our mobile electric fences, but this was our first foray into a solar water pump system and we’re very pleased with how it worked out.

Adding solar power is extremely beneficial as it allows us to use otherwise unimproved land to graze our cattle. We can now add the soil building fertility of well-managed cattle to hayfields, pastures, and crop land on land that was previously inaccessible to livestock. Cows are pretty self-sufficient, but they do need water and we need the ability to electrify the fencing in order to control their grazing.

Controlled grazing is the key to unlocking the incredible regenerative ability of livestock and portable solar systems are an investment that will allow us the flexibility to make the best use of this power. At their roots our farming techniques are meant to mimic nature, and the fact that we can use new age technology to harness the ancient power of the sun to help complete the life cycle is an incredible picture. We can't wait to see where it takes us next!