Shelter is good for all stock. The old timers new this and grew trees down fence lines so animals could have shelter in extremes. When driving past properties with the shelter belts stock are always using them during extremes.<p>Today, farmers are removing the shelter belts all in the name of efficiency because the shelter belts reduce grass growth under them and make it harder to irrigate.<p>But damn the animals, at least they have maximised and and can now fully capitalize.
Something that's interesting is that most of our agricultural crops are bred for full sun (ie, a big flat field). I wonder if there's room for new partial-shade versions of crops, so they work better alongside solar panels. I doubt they'd be as productive in an absolute sense (less light = less total energy), but adding on solar panels value to the output of that land would likely be better than single-use of either.
This is already practiced in some parts in China.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/Azj3OrEtkP4" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/Azj3OrEtkP4</a>
(I can't read the full article due to the paywall, but) another framing of this is: farmers can supplement their income by renting out their sheep to help solar farms manage the vegetation around the panels:<p><a href="https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/2020/07/solar-grazing-livestock-as-landscapers-at-utility-scale-solar-arrays/" rel="nofollow">https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/2020/07/solar-grazing-livesto...</a>