Happy Friday!  Here are some of the agricultural law stories in the news over the past couple of weeks.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

*Solar sheep?  NPR recently ran an article looking at the potential use of sheep in conjunction with solar farms.  In the Northeast, there have been farmers who contract with solar farms to graze their sheep under the panels.  Not all companies will consider this, but it might be an option to discuss if you are looking at signing a solar lease or have animals and are seeking grazing land.  I’d certainly recommend a written contract between the sheep owner and the solar company, and I’d advise the sheep owner to pay careful attention to terms related to liability for damage to equipment and indemnification in the event such damage occurred.  [Read article here.]

*Farm insurance mistakes to avoid.  As you know from last week’s blog post, I’m a big proponent having adequate insurance for farms and ranches.  This article from Farm Progress offered some great tips on mistakes to avoid related to insurance.  The most important is likely the annual review of one’s insurance policy and coverage.  We’ve adopted the annual review policy and it has allowed us to catch a couple of different issues to ensure we have adequate coverage for all of the properties under our control.  [Read article here.]

*PRF (Rainfall Insurance) deadline is November 15 for 2021 sign up.  Did you know you can purchase rainfall insurance?  Essentially, PRF insurance allows you to insure a percentage of normal rainfall for your area, and you trigger a payment if rainfall falls below your insured percentage.  This can be a great risk management tool for livestock producers who have cattle on grass.  You can purchase this product through your crop insurance agent.  For more info, here is a prior podcast episode you can listen to where I interviewed Dr. Jason Johnson and here is a recent blog post that Dr. Justin Benavidez wrote on PRF insurance.

*My horse is my hero.  This month, I wrote about our old quarter horse, Lou, in my Our Rural Roots column in Progressive Farmer magazine.  From the feedback, it seems like lots of people have fond memories of a favorite horse.  [Read article here.]

Upcoming Presentations 

I’ve got a busy calendar next week.  On Tuesday, I’ll be doing a presentation for Gillespie County Extension Office on hunting leases.  On Wednesday, I’ll be speaking at the District 2 Judges and Commissioner’s Conference in Lubbock.  On Thursday, I’ll be covering agricultural law for this week’s session of the TAMU Master Marketer course.

For a complete list of all of my upcoming presentations, click here.

Also–remember that our Online Ranchers Leasing Workshop course is available on demand!  You can register and watch anytime, at you own pace.  For more info, click here.