{"id":13282,"date":"2025-08-08T00:49:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T00:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/2025\/08\/08\/farming-sheep-under-60000-solar-panels-landline-abc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T00:49:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T00:49:50","slug":"farming-sheep-under-60000-solar-panels-landline-abc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/2025\/08\/08\/farming-sheep-under-60000-solar-panels-landline-abc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Farming sheep under 60,000 solar panels | Landline | ABC NEWS"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"youtubomatic-video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"autoplay\" width=\"580\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ix7siXM7L_A?controls=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Solar infrastructure on agricultural land can be a heated topic among farmers in Australia.<br \/>\u200bMany are concerned because contracts with past projects removed good farmland from producing food and fibre for up to 30 years.<br \/>\u200bNearby residents have also objected to the visual impact of large-scale solar farms on the landscape.<br \/>\u200bBut two sheep producers in central west New South Wales want others to consider the benefits of their experience.<br \/>\u200bBoth run operations within solar farms and say the infrastructure has actually improved their farm productivity.<br \/>\u200bOn the outskirts of Dubbo, grazier Tom Warren produces wool and harvests the sun.<br \/>\u200bHis merino sheep share 54 hectares with 64,500 solar panels owned by an energy company which generate up to 20 megawatts of electricity a day.<br \/>\u200bWhile Mr Warren still owns his land, fellow wool-grower Tony Inder sold his property in Wellington, south-east of Dubbo, to a solar developer.<br \/>\u200bHis sheep now graze under the solar panels which produce 600 megawatts, enough to power 220,000 homes.<br \/>\u200bBoth farmers say they\u2019ve been surprised by the results of combining livestock and solar infrastructure on their properties.<br \/>\u200bCondensation on the panels provides run-off increasing moisture in the soil and grass as well as providing shade and shelter to the sheep.<br \/>\u200bMr Inder says he&#8217;s is getting stronger, better-quality wool from his 3,500 sheep while Mr Warren has increased his stocking rate by 25 per cent.<br \/>\u200bThey believe it&#8217;s important to highlight the positives they&#8217;ve experienced to help challenge lingering negative perceptions about solar developments.<br \/>\u200b<br \/>By Pip Courtney and Cameron Lang via ABC Landline<\/p>\n<p>ABC NEWS provides around the clock coverage of news events as they break in Australia and abroad. It&#8217;s news when you want it, from Australia&#8217;s most trusted news organisation.<\/p>\n<p>For more from ABC NEWS, click here: <a href=\"https:\/\/ab.co\/2kxYCZY\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/ab.co\/2kxYCZY<\/a><br \/>Watch more ABC NEWS content ad-free on ABC iview: <a href=\"https:\/\/ab.co\/2OB7Mk1\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/ab.co\/2OB7Mk1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Go deeper on our ABC NEWS In-depth channel: <a href=\"https:\/\/ab.co\/2lNeBn2\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/ab.co\/2lNeBn2<\/a><br \/>Like ABC NEWS on Facebook: <a href=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/abcnews.au\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/facebook.com\/abcnews.au<\/a><br \/>Follow ABC NEWS on Instagram: <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/abcnews_au\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/instagram.com\/abcnews_au<\/a><br \/>Follow ABC NEWS on X (Twitter): <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/abcnews\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/twitter.com\/abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated.<\/p>\n<p>#ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Solar infrastructure on agricultural land can be a heated topic among farmers in Australia.\u200bMany are concerned because contracts with past projects removed good farmland from producing food and fibre for up to 30 years.\u200bNearby residents have also objected to the visual impact of large-scale solar farms on the landscape.\u200bBut two sheep producers in central west [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8553,"featured_media":13283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4787,4788,4487,4786,7688,46282,46284,46283,46281,2905,46286,31,46285,18032,29,32,34],"tags":[4771,4772,4473,4770,7657,46276,46278,46277,46275,2895,46280,4,46279,18018,2,5,7],"class_list":["post-13282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc","category-abc-news","category-agriculture","category-australia","category-farming","category-landline","category-landline-abc","category-landline-australia","category-livestock","category-news","category-regional-australia","category-renewable-energy","category-rural-australia","category-sheep","category-solar-energy","category-solar-panels","category-solar-power","tag-abc","tag-abc-news","tag-agriculture","tag-australia","tag-farming","tag-landline","tag-landline-abc","tag-landline-australia","tag-livestock","tag-news","tag-regional-australia","tag-renewable-energy","tag-rural-australia","tag-sheep","tag-solar-energy","tag-solar-panels","tag-solar-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8553"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/youtubomatic-test\/demoa26f6b3a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}