MONMOUTH, Ore. — Last summer Jared Lloyd, a multi-generational sheep rancher whose flocks graze Northwest vineyards, was part of a panel for the renowned International Pinot Noir Celebration in nearby McMinnville.

The annual weekend wine festival’s $1,746 price tag was not in his budget, but his unique practices earned him entry.

“It’s not the crowd I usually run with,” joked the owner of Naked Grazing, whose home base is in the Willamette Valley just a short drive from scores of vineyards.

In addition to his wife, Beka, and operations manager, Sean Johnson, Lloyd’s crowd is usually a woolly bunch. Naked Grazing’s flocks move from vineyard to vineyard — about 2,000 acres in Oregon and Washington — as they churn weeds and cover crops into fertilizer.

Naked Grazing has attracted the interest of the American Lamb Board and the Northwest’s winegrowers, an expanding number of which are his clients.

The board invited Lloyd to the Pinot noir celebration to talk about the benefits of grazing sheep in vineyards, along with chefs Nick Doughty and Chris Remy, who talked about pairing Pinot noir with dishes that feature lamb.

Although he was a debutante to the celebration, Lloyd’s experience with sheep and other livestock runs generations deep. Lloyd grew up on a family ranch near Grand Junction, Colo. While livestock was the mainstay, most family members held additional jobs to make ends meet.

“We were broke country kids,” he said.

Lloyd said his “Come to Jesus moment” with nomadic herding practices he would eventually use in Oregon vineyards, began in the severe drought of 2012 in Colorado, where hay prices rose so high he could no longer afford to purchase it for his flock.

Instead, he sought out newly harvested fields of hay and transported his flocks to chomp down the stubble in exchange for leaving the field with free fertilizer.

“I’ve never seen my ewes so fat,” Lloyd said. “After that, I moved them from field to field.”

What brought him to Oregon?

“Wolves,” he said simply. In Colorado, wolves took nearly half his flock. He and his wife loaded the surviving ewes and eventually landed in Linn County, Ore.

His connection with Northwest winegrowers began first as he tried grazing his flocks in vineyards in California, followed by a stint with a vineyard management company in McMinnville.

Later, he took a class with Patricia Skinkis at Oregon State University. There, Lloyd connected the dots between vine health and natural fertilization.

In Oregon, he sells his lambs for meat and wool, so he seeks to work with vineyards whose practices are organic, biodynamic or regenerative, complementing his and his clients’ management systems.

Horned Dorset and Shetland sheep make up the bulk of his flocks — older heritage breeds that are hardy, maternal, good meat and milk providers, and which produce a coarse down wool great for weaving, Lloyd said.

Sheep are also less damaging to the wet spring ground than tractors, which are commonly used to control cover crops, or to mow and spread fertilizer, Lloyd said.

In addition to the fertilizer they leave, he said sheep can graze down the weeds while increasing the water-holding capacity of soil, making the vineyard more resistant to drought.

The practice is nothing new to Asian, European and Australian winegrowers, who have long used sheep in their vineyards.

American vintners are taking note. In addition to proven vineyard health, there’s an additional advantage that makes the price of contracting Naked Grazing worth it, according to Mark Bjornson of Bjornson Vineyards in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA.

The ewes and lambs are an attraction to visitors and are visible proof that the winery is serious about farming in a way that preserves the soil for generations to come.

Bjornson and neighboring Bryn Mawr and Bethel Heights wineries have created a “Sheep Share” program connected to Naked Grazing, inviting visitors to watch as the flocks move among the three vineyards in the spring.

Naked Grazing started with 12 clients when it launched and is expected to more than triple its clientele by this fall. This December, Lloyd said Naked Grazing plans to expand to five employees.

“I’m pinching myself,” he said. “More clients are coming on this fall.”