Lambs grazing under an Oregon solar farm put on the same weight to the gram | Hacker News Reader

Lambs grazing under an Oregon solar farm put on the same weight to the gram

spacedaily.com

13 pointsColinWright5 comments

Original paper published in 2021 - https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-system...

This doesn’t seem to have anything to do with solar panels exactly, just suggests that nature has optimized so it can thrive equally in sun or shade, which seems logical; otherwise one area would have such an advantage it would outcompete the other.

Grazing animal yields are directly related to the forage the animals can eat.

Farmers are trying to optimize the number of bites and steps an animal takes to get full. Fewer bites and fewer steps means bigger animals.

Which means farmers are generally focused on how good their grass is. This leads to a focus on soil health, rotational grazing, pushing out less productive plants, etc.

The concern around grazing animals and solar is from whether solar will impact grass growth which will in turn impact the animals’ growth.

Which it doesn’t.

Shade can impact grass growth. Grass doesnt grow as effectively under heavy canopy. But it’s generally the fallen leaves that actually kill off grass.

It seems that solar panels do not block enough light to have any impact on grass growth.

Good, because my understanding that putting huge solar farms on acres of land is the most effective and harmless way to use solar is unchanged.

>Across the two years, pasture beneath the panels produced 38 percent less herbage than the open field, with the fully shaded strips directly beneath the panels growing thinnest.

>That figure describes pasture production, not the amount each lamb ate.

Thank you, Captain Obvious? Trying to clear up a misconception that nobody actually has just ends up creating more confusion. I find myself rereading the previous sentences to make sure I didn't miss something. This seems to be a fairly common AI writing pattern that would best be removed by a human editor.

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