A Pembrokeshire farm is earning a dual income from farmland by combining lamb production with solar energy.

The 47MW solar park on 73 hectares (ha) at Fenton Home Farm, near Haverfordwest, generates a reliable income for farmers Stephen and Clare Morgan.

Leasing that land to a renewable energy company hasn’t forced them to give up sheep farming as the couple graze it with 300 breeding ewes and their progeny, to produce lamb and manage grass.

“We use the sheep as lawnmowers,’’ says Mrs Morgan.

The £46m park was developed in 2014 when the Morgans leased 61ha to a solar generation company on a 30-year agreement and 13ha the following year.

The solar panels are linked to an electricity substation two kilometres from the farm.

Until then, the land had been used in an arable rotation; grass leys were established before the panels were erected.

A term of the lease agreement is the management of the grass, weeds and hedges by the Morgans, with mechanical methods or sheep.

All the equipment is protected with guards so sheep grazing was a good management option as the land could be grazed without risk of damage to the wiring.

The number of times the flock is rounded up is kept to a minimum as there is a greater chance of injury from the mounts of the panels.

“Having a high dependency ewe wouldn’t work, you want to be handling them as little as possible,’’ says Mr Morgan; Aberfield ewes are sired with Primera and Abertex genetics.

The flock lambs from the beginning of April with only the singles lambed on the solar land - the twins and triplets are housed two weeks before lambing.

The panels have the added benefit of providing shade from hot sun and shelter for the young lambs when weather conditions are poor.

The solar land is mostly rested for three months from November. There is other land that the flock can utilise and some ewes are sent away to tack grazing for those months.

Managing the grazing can be tricky. “We try to graze very tightly so we have to get the sheep numbers right. If a field gets away with you, you can’t just lock up a field for silage,’’ Mr Morgan explains.

It is not possible to reseed the land so there will be a nutritional penalty going forward and the shade from the panels does diminish the sugar content of the swards.

“We can grow frames of lambs, grow a good store lamb, but we can’t fatten them on the solar land,’’ says Mrs Morgan.

The lambs are therefore fattened on other land.

The stocking rate will have to be reduced accordingly as the quality of the grass becomes poorer.

A quad-mounted spinner is used for spreading fertiliser although none was applied in 2022 because the response rate would not have been enough to generate a sufficient return on the high cost of that investment.

For weed control, if it cannot be managed by tight grazing then it is sprayed once at the beginning of the summer.

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There are fenced off sections, narrow corridors of land similar to headlands, that need to be managed; suckler cows and calves are used for this.

“If you are not careful these could turn into rough grass margins,’’ says Mr Morgan.

The 30-year agreement is index-linked and ownership of the fixings transfers to the Morgans when it ends. A sum of money has been allowed in the agreement for dismantling and disposing of the panels, although it is likely that another company may take it on.

Mr Morgan reckons the decision to diversify into solar was helped by the farm not having sentimental value.

Fenton Home Farm hasn’t been in the family for generations, he bought it when he moved to Pembrokeshire in 1999.

“We have not got the same emotional attachment to it,’’ he admits.

“Solar made sense for us because as a business we have always spread our risk and it secures a future without subsidies.’’