Veterans in Food and Farming, and a Love for Lamb

It’s no secret farming isn’t for the weak of heart, and the same goes for military life. In fact, when asked how military life prepared him for farming, American Lamb shepherd, John Lemondes’ answer is simple: “We work until the job is done.” In other words, military discipline is a great foundation for farming.

Following a 27-year career in the Army, Lemondes purchased 500 acres of land to begin farming, a way of life he envisioned for his family and his future. Growing up with Greek and Irish roots, Lemondes was a wool and lamb consumer, and the farmland he purchased was perfectly suited for sheep. Today, due to Lemondes’ hard work and discipline, Elly’s Acres is thriving.

Lemondes further credits the military for his love of lamb and livelihood, noting that the United States Department of Defense is the number one consumer of wool products. With a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, the Army sent him through a textiles course at North Carolina State University to study the role of textiles in the military – understanding the role of cotton, wool, and other textiles, and the overall importance of the supply chain.

In addition to applying his military background and knowledge to farming, Lemondes continues his service to the public currently serving as a New York Assemblyman. Lemondes has also been an advocate for proper training and education for veteran farmers through his previous work with the Farmer Veteran Coalition.

The transition back to civilian life after military service can be a difficult time for some veterans. Resources can be limited and opportunities hard to come by. Farming is a terrific option, but proper training is required, and realistic expectations should be set. The Farmer Veteran Coalition’s mission to mobilize veterans to feed America is doing just that – giving back to both the farming and military communities to strengthen rural communities and create sustainable food systems.

From the Farm to the Kitchen

Inspired by his brother who lost his life to PTSD following his military career, Chef Bryan Jacobs, also a veteran and lover of lamb, created a similar organization to assist veterans transitioning into a culinary career.

Jacobs, who fell in love with cooking far ahead of his military career, grew up in the kitchen with his grandfather, also a veteran. Together they would forage for their food, fishing or hunting for their meal that night. He credits his grandfather for teaching him where food really comes from and how the quality of that food affects the quality of the finished dish.

Through the lessons his grandfather taught him, Jacobs’ passion for cooking ultimately saved his life: “I was homeless following my service days and dealing with PTSD. I didn’t feel like there was a purpose in what I was doing. After working many jobs, I eventually signed up for culinary school. It has healed me inside and out.”

Following his brother’s death, he decided he wanted to do the same for others and started Vets 2 Chefs: “I wanted to use my gift of what saved me to save others.”

Vets 2 Chefs is a 16-week training program to not only train veterans in the culinary arts but to help them rediscover who they are after service and find purpose. Jacobs describes the program as giving them the necessary ingredients to create a beautiful recipe for their life. To date, 44 vets have gone through the program and have found new purpose and success in the food service industry. COVID put a pause on the program but plans to relaunch are underway.

In the meantime, Jacobs proudly highlights his work both in the kitchen and with vets at his mobile restaurant, The Liberty Smokehouse, in Tampa, FL. The mobile kitchen features a live fire to cook and has a rotating menu that is meant to highlight multiple cultures and cuisines.

“We often feature lamb on the menu. It’s a universally loved meat and often at the center of the table for special meals and celebrations.”

The work Lemondes and Jacobs are doing is just one small piece of the puzzle in helping veterans transition back to civilian life, find new purpose and combat PTSD. On Veterans Day and every day, we salute Lemondes, Jacobs, and all our veterans. Thank you for your contributions to our country and our industry!

Can Shepherding Change the World? Shepherdess Brittany Cole Bush Thinks So

Photo by Paul Collins

What comes to mind when you think of shepherding? Sheep, first and foremost, certainly. Maybe herding dogs running across a hillside, maybe their human companion watching calmly from a distance. Beyond that details might get kind of hazy—and outdated. In recent years, the world of shepherding has advanced lightyears beyond that old fashioned bent-wood hook you might be imagining. However, they’re still guided by core tenants that shaped shepherding centuries ago. Twenty-first century shepherding practices employ targeted grazing techniques that can help mitigate invasive species, promote soil health, improve watershed function, and even help control wildfires, all while providing consumers with wool and meat they can be proud to support.

Meet Brittany Cole Bush, a shepherdess in the Ojai Valley of California. That one word, “shepherdess,” encompasses her job and her entire business. But Shepherdess Land and Livestock, her targeted grazing company, seeks to do so much more than graze sheep and goats. For Cole, as her friends call her, Shepherdess is about “the marriage of innovative approaches and land stewardship.” As the hazards of climate change, from wildfires to invasive species to erosion, close in on her beloved corner of Southern California, she deploys innovative herding techniques to improve the local ecosystem.

Photo by Paul Collins

Of course, the animals themselves haven’t changed—they’re the same ruminant mammals they’ve always been. It’s the strategy behind the grazing that has evolved. As Bush says, “I give nod to the past, to inform the future. And I'm sitting in the now, and the opportunity is tremendous.” Here’s how it works: during the grazing season, landowners hire Bush to deploy her flock of 1,000 heads (half her own, half she is working on behalf of other outfits) to graze their land. This can serve a number of purposes, from clearing brush that has the potential to become fuel for a wildfire to helping create vineyard and orchard land. While Bush has not dabbled in it herself, similar outfits to Shepherdess clear land in and among the large equipment of solar and wind farms. It’s a win for everyone: the land benefits, the sheep benefit, and the land- and livestock-owners benefit. Simply put, she says, “our land needs to be tended.”

Dylan Boeken, lead shepherd at Shepherdess, describes a typical day of targeted grazing: early in the morning, shepherds wake up and check on the herds and their guard dogs. Are they where they’re supposed to be? If so, next, the “massive bulk of labor” for the day is putting up and taking down fencing. The rest of the day is focused on monitoring the animals (“Are they sick or injured? Or are they getting fat and happy?”) and simultaneously monitoring the land. You don’t want to let the animals eat until “it’s a dirt lot.” Therefore, they rotate the sheep to different parts of the land based on what the land and sheep need. This continues on repeat for the full 8-month grazing season.

Photo by Paul Collins

Bush says that, as important as the environmental impact of the grazing business is, “I'm trying to work to train shepherds, but also elevate them as entrepreneurs, or help them to manifest their own dreams within my business.” There are a few ways this plays out: she has partners who are interested in the fiber business, and so Shepherdess is developing a fiber-focused flock to raise for their wool. Boeken’s interest lies in raising animals for meat; he sells whole and half animals to local restaurants and even ambitious home cooks through his burgeoning business, Boek House Hearth & Husbandry. By selling sides of lamb instead of butchered cuts, it keeps costs down for restaurants and allows him to be selective about clients: “I’m only selling to restaurants that want to market whole animal cookery—that’s just another part of the value system.” He says his biggest customer is a local pizza place, where house-cured lamb belly and lamb sausage are among the toppings on offer.

These side projects help provide additional revenue streams for the business and, in a sense, serve as a marketing campaign. Ojai Valley residents familiar with Shepherdess because of their favorite lamb sausage pizza just might begin to recognize the herd grazing on hillsides as they drive through the area, and can partially credit the sheep for helping spare the area from the devastation of fires like winter 2017-18’s Thomas fire. “I think people get joy out of knowing this is a product of work that’s protecting the city from another fire like that happening. They want to support that endeavor,” says Boeken.

And that’s really what regenerative agriculture businesses like Shepherdess Land and Livestock are all about: working in harmony with local consumers and farmers to create and maintain both a sustainable business and thriving ecosystem. “People need to be more connected to their food source and where things come from,” says Bush. “Having more sheep in the public eye is the opportunity that we need, because the conversation can be started. Where does our food come from?” And in Ojai, California, the answer, at least in part, is from your own backyard.

Learn more about Brittany Cole Bush & Dylan Boeken

Website: shepherdesslandl.co / brittanycolebush.com / boekhouse.com

IG: @shepherdess.land.and.livestock / @bcbshepherdess / @boek_house

Short Video by Todd Selby

"Grazing for Good" - Soil Centric Interview

Looking at the Whole Picture: Regenerative Farming at Hamilton Sheep Station

Regenerative farming, says sheep rancher and veterinarian Alan McAnelly, is nothing new. In fact, this holistic, conservationist approach draws from farming methods that existed long ago. Historically, anywhere people have had to subsist off what they could raise on poor-quality soil, they have tried to improve it. In recent years, regenerative farming has become increasingly popular as a cost-effective way to improve your land and livestock with an eye towards sustainability. It requires taking a big picture view of the land, and techniques include doing what you can to plant a diverse array of crops, prevent the erosion of topsoil, encourage native plants and insects to thrive, and help the land absorb and retain as much water as possible.

It also means raising sheep. According to McAnelly, sheep are the perfect livestock to raise in a regenerative farming environment: “For their digestive system and how they utilize water, sheep are just made for grazing pastures. They’re better than any other livestock for using all the weeds.” He should know. After graduating from Texas A&M University in 1969, McAnelly was a veterinarian for decades before he took up sheep farming just outside Hamilton, Texas. 

Unlike the Panhandle farm where he grew up, McAnelly does not plow the soil at his ranch, Hamilton Sheep Station, nor does he amend it with fertilizer. Plowing releases carbon into the air, disrupts vital earthworm and dung beetle populations, and compacts the soil—and besides, by his own admission, his land is substandard. “You might say rocky,” he laughs. “There’s no water underneath it. It’s nice land; it’s pretty land. But it’s a poor-quality land.” In other words, it may not be good for growing traditional cash crops, but it’s great for raising sheep.

“We may be more of a sheep operation because the lack of water keeps us from raising corn,” says McAnelly. And to that end, he caters to their needs, planting cover crops like clover, Sorghum-Sudangrass, and Hairy Vetch that both improve the soil and feed his herd. He even shares his vegetables with them. “My little lambs do very well on cover crops,” he says. “They can eat a little turnip, they can eat a little beet, they can have a little radish. It's like a salad bar.” McAnelly selects crops to improve nitrogen content, organic content, and help the land retain more water. He sees his land getting more productive each year—and the sheep produce better meat because the animals’ diets are rich and diverse.

Particularly as the already-hot climate of Texas endures progressively dryer summers that come with climate change, farming methods that conserve water are crucial. “It’s not raining now, and it’s tough,” he says. “Nothing works without rain.” But what you can do is make the small amount of rain that does fall support the ranch for longer. McAnelly explains it thusly: Plowing compacts the land, meaning no matter how much rain falls, plowed land absorbs less of it. To increase absorption, you need softer soil. This is achieved in a few ways, including supporting the earthworms and dung beetles who literally dig tiny holes through the soil, adding organic matter to the soil. Crops chosen for their roots’ ability to loosen soil also help. “I can’t make it rain, but I can make it further between rains,” he says, noting his land will absorb “several inches more” rain than a plowed field during the same rain event.

At Hamilton Sheep Station, regenerative farming is a practical choice, but it’s also a beneficial one from nearly every angle. It’s a cost-effective method of farming, because you aren’t paying for large-scale plowing equipment, the diesel required to run them, or fertilizer. It’s better for the environment, because you’re improving the topsoil, supporting insect populations, and not using an excess of chemicals. And the sheep are grazing to their hearts content on a diverse diet of cover crops, vegetables, and weeds. “I’m using agriculture with a low-cost input to support the health of the soil, plants, and animals. That’s the bottom line. That’s the whole story right there.”

Beneath the Panels: How Sheep are Supporting Solar Energy by Improving Solar Farmland

Today, solar power is more affordable, accessible, and prevalent in the Unites States than ever before. It’s projected to account for 20% of electricity generation in the U.S. by 2050. According to the Department of Energy, “Solar’s abundance and potential throughout the U.S. is staggering: Photovoltaic (PV) panels on just 22,000 square miles of the nation’s total land area – about the size of Lake Michigan – could supply enough electricity to power the entire U.S.”

At the same time, farmland in America is shrinking, and while urbanization is the primary cause, as solar panels pepper the landscape, that land becomes largely unusable for other purposes. However, the livestock industry, specifically the sheep industry, has come to the rescue and the practice of solar grazing is gaining traction across the U.S., offering an environmentally friendly way to manage weeds on solar farms.

American lamb ranchers work with solar companies, delivering their sheep to the solar farm to graze for a portion of the year depending on where they’re located. Grazing sheep alongside solar operations offer benefits to both the land and animals. The sheep graze on weeds and grass, preventing vegetation from shading the solar panels or inhibiting their movement and reducing the need for manual landscaping (like mowing and pesticide use). In turn, the land is a food source for the sheep, and the solar panels offer shelter from rain, wind, and direct sun.

Using sheep to graze on solar sites is gaining popularity as a successful and cost-effective strategy for vegetation control. It is less labor intensive than traditional landscaping and improves the quality of the land by cycling nutrients back into the soil, minimizing erosion and encouraging native plant growth. Sheep can easily maneuver around and beneath the solar panels, grazing all parts of the land, eating grass, legumes, brush, and weeds.

A brief look at three operations across the country showcases the diverse and impactful solar grazing efforts nationwide.

Richard “Rusty” Cocke of Southwest Lambscaping (Arizona)

Arizona, known for its desert landscape and abundant sunlight, has become home to many solar farms. As a sixth-generation rancher in Arizona and the great-great-great-grandson of famed rancher Henry Hooker, Richard “Rusty” Cocke recognized the opportunity for his sheep operation to improve land used by solar farms after discussing with a friend the issues many have faced from debris.

Weed control can be a major challenge for solar operations because weeds can obstruct the panels, reducing energy production, and weed overgrowth can even damage panels. Some solar operations use mowers and herbicides to control vegetation growth. When Arizona solar farms needed a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution to weed control, Cocke approached them with a solar grazing solution that would reduce costs of solar energy production and provide a natural approach for weed control. He now has approximately 250 sheep grazing on solar farms in Arizona.

“If you think about it, this symbiotic relationship brings together one of the oldest agricultural practices with one of the newest energy technologies,” said Cocke. “We’re reducing the cost of solar energy; improving the quality of the land; and raising lamb as a delicious and nourishing food source for American families. As a rancher, this just made sense for us.”

Cocke notes that the sheep eat a varied diet, which make them well-suited to manage vegetation beneath solar panels. For example, desert tumbleweeds can be a major issue for solar farms, but that they are actually a high protein food for the sheep.

“When I started this there were probably three other guys doing it, and today we have an association, the American Solar Grazing Association (ASGA) with members operating solar farms all over the U.S.,” continued Cocke. “I think it’s safe to say it’s catching on.”

Trent Hendricks of Cabriejo Ranch (Missouri)

At the age of 10, Trent Hendrick’s father bought him his first ram and 50 ewes, and he’s been raising lamb ever since. But his passion didn’t start there, raising lamb was something he was born into, with his family raising sheep well before Hendricks took his first steps.

Today, Hendricks and his wife, Rachel, along with their six children, run Cabriejo Ranch in the Missouri Ozarks where they produce grass-fed beef and lamb and run a large solar grazing operation across the Midwest and Southeast states as part of their regenerative land and vegetation management services.

Hendricks didn’t initially set out to start a solar grazing business, but opportunity came knocking when a large solar company approached him to manage their land with environmental benefits beyond just keeping the grass short. They wanted to implement regenerative agriculture practices to restore ecosystems, sequester carbon, restore soil health, and improve water quality. Today, his solar grazing operation focuses on large-scale solar sites where he “follows the grass,” with sheep grazing mainly from April or May through Thanksgiving, before they come home to lamb during the winter months.

At the heart of his solar grazing operation, there’s a strong focus on stewardship.

“We've been given an opportunity to live on the land and work with livestock. And so, our goal is to be the best stewards of that gift,” says Hendricks.

Through the Savory Institute’s Ecological Outcome Verification™ (EOV) Program, Hendricks can measure the impact of his solar grazing operation. The EOV Program conducts an annual assessment on the fields where Hendrick’s sheep graze, showing a positive trend line in the regeneration of the land and provides owners with a report showcasing the positive impacts that are taking place, such as improved soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem function.

Because of his work with the Savory Institute, the lamb Hendrick’s sells to consumers carries the Savory Institutes “Land to Market” seal, differentiating it as a regenerative product.

Hendricks’ passion for what he does drives how he does it, like many American lamb farmers and ranchers.

“You know… no one knows how you helped a little lamb survive or when you took care of an ewe that was down for seven days before she lambed—the heart and the sacrifice that goes into that,” said Hendricks. “Grazing our sheep on the solar fields helps the land and the animals; the way we run our operation is done with a lot of heart and humility. We are constantly learning and working to improve what we do, and so are most farmers and ranchers. We are stewards of these animals, and we take that really seriously.”

Dr. Judy St. Leger of Dutch Barn Farm

After purchasing a historic farmstead in the Mohawk River Valley of New York, Judy St. Leger and her husband set out to improve the quality of the land. She brought in sheep and goats to graze, starting with just six and growing to her current flock of 250.

Knowing that agricultural land was shrinking and looking for opportunities to benefit her community, she got into the targeted grazing business, grazing first on nonherbicide cemeteries before a friend introduced her to solar grazing. Today, St. Leger serves as Executive Director of the American Solar Grazing Association (ASGA) and was one of its founding members. She typically grazes her sheep in upstate New York from the beginning of May to the end of October.

As a veterinarian, St. Leger understands the unique symbiotic relationship between sheep and solar fields. The fields offer a protected area for sheep to graze, shade during the hottest part of the day, and plenty of vegetation to munch on. Sheep keep the vegetation low, protecting the solar panels from shade, and cycle nutrients back into the soil.

For St. Leger, it’s all about the sheep having a high quality of life every day and supporting farms who are doing the best they can for the animals.

Through her role with ASGA, St. Leger has watched as the solar grazing industry grew exponentially in recent years, especially in the Northeast where they had only three members a few years ago and almost 500 members today. Solar grazing is becoming more popular across the U.S., and Judy is advocating for solar grazing to be part of the

approval process for new solar fields, ensuring that the land is cared for while it’s producing energy.

“With agricultural lands shrinking, anywhere we can bring agriculture alongside other industries to benefit the land and keep agriculture sustainable is good,” says St. Leger. “If we can use solar grazing as a way to expand the sheep industry in the U.S. and change profitability for farmers in a way that improves the land, then I think it’s a win-win situation.”

The Way Ahead

Across the country solar grazing operations look slightly different, from the time of year to the type of vegetation that needs management. What is clear is that the mutually beneficial relationship between sheep and solar energy may hold the power to support food, fiber, and energy production in an environmentally responsible way. American lamb producers through collaboration and a focus on the entire ecosystem are shepherding a new way of thinking about the future of sheep and energy production.