From the Fields ®
Rod Chamberlain Riverside County mango and vegetable farmer
Joe Valente San Joaquin County winegrape grower
We’re starting harvest about two weeks earlier than normal. Typically, we be- gin harvesting during the second or third week of August, but this year we start- ed at the end of July. We anticipated an earlier season because of the unusually warm weather we experienced in March. Everything started developing early and continued that schedule throughout the growing season. At this point, it’s still difficult to know exactly what yields will look like until harvest is underway. We’re expecting somewhere between a light and average crop. The earlier harvest mainly affects timing and logistics. Every year we build our schedule around when harvest normally begins, including preparing equipment and organizing labor. When harvest starts two weeks ahead of schedule, every- thing has to be ready sooner than expected. Fortunately, we were able to get everything together in time. Labor has been very good this year. We haven’t experienced any significant labor shortages during pruning or other vineyard work. Most of our grapes are harvested mechanically, so while labor is always important, we aren’t as depen- dent on large hand-harvest crews as some other operations. Overall, the weather has been very favorable. While it’s been warm, we haven’t experienced many days above 100 degrees, and we’ve avoided the prolonged stretches of 105- to 110-degree temperatures that can create problems. The mild summer has also helped reduce disease and pest pressure. Mildew hasn’t been much of an issue this season, and we also haven’t seen the mite pressure that typically develops during hotter weather. Overall, it’s been an excellent growing season from a weather standpoint. We grow enough fruit that we sell to outside wineries in addition to using it in our own wineries, but there simply aren’t as many buyers as there once were. Even when we process fruit ourselves, we still must sell the finished wine, so the chal- lenge doesn’t disappear. Whether it’s grapes on the vine or wine in the bottle, marketing the product remains difficult.
We’re wrapping up harvest of our third mango variety. It’s been a very early season for us. Once mango harvest is finished, we’ll begin cleanup and field preparation before starting to seed our vegetable crops in early September. The early season has worked in our favor. Our mango orchards follow our veg- etable season, allowing us to keep our employees working year-round. Because the two crops don’t overlap very much, we can transition directly from vegeta- bles into mangoes without needing to hire a large seasonal workforce. We’re a small operation, so we keep only a handful of permanent, year-round employ- ees. Many of our employees have been with us for decades—some for more than 40 years. When we need additional seasonal help, our employees typically bring in family members and friends to fill those positions. We’ll have some whitefly issues in the early fall plantings, but compared to most other areas, we’re on the fortunate side. The mangoes also seem to be very pest-free. They have a latex sap, so I think they’re not as susceptible to a lot of the sucking pests that affect other crops. We use only organic pesti- cides, even though we’re not a registered organic operation. We like to stay within that framework. As for the mangoes, we’ve never sprayed them with any- thing. In the 35 years we’ve been growing mangoes, we’ve never applied any pesticide sprays. We market almost all our products through farmers markets in the Los Angeles area. Santa Monica and Hollywood are our two largest markets, and then we have a couple of smaller markets. We also ship some product to the Bay Area. Everything goes through the farmers markets. We also do some whole- sale sales through those markets. We’re fully integrated. We do everything from growing our own seedlings all the way to harvest and sales. That allows us to keep the margins that would normally go to someone else, and that helps our bottom line significantly.
Trevor Airola Calaveras County rancher
We’re in what I call a cruising pattern. We receive irrigation water on a 10-day rotation, so every week and a half I have a 24-hour irrigation window that keeps me busy. Outside of that, it’s mostly checking on the cat- tle, monitoring salt and mineral levels, managing fly control and making sure everything is running smoothly. We’re about two weeks away from starting our fall calving season, and my spring calves—born in February and early March—are getting ready to be marketed at the end of August. As calving ap- proaches, I’m doing more frequent herd checks to monitor the cows and determine when those first calves will arrive. I’m also checking all my veterinary and medical supplies, making sure everything is stocked, sterile and easy to access. I’m also moving cows that are closest to calving nearer to the handling facilities so they’re easier to reach if I need to intervene. Right now, I’m selling calves for more than $3 per pound higher than the first calves I sold about 20 years ago. Last year’s fall calf crop is a good example. I kept nearly all my replacement heifers and only sold the steers, yet I still generated the same gross income I was making five years ago with my entire calf crop. The market is strong enough that I can afford to reinvest back into the herd by retaining replacement females, something I couldn’t have done just a few years ago. Fortunately, predator pressure hasn’t been much of an issue for us. We don’t run cattle in the higher elevations where predators are more common, and we don’t have wolves in our area yet. When selecting bulls, I’m willing to sacrifice some growth potential in exchange for stronger calving ease because my cattle need to be able to take care of themselves while I’m at work. I’ve structured the entire operation around producing independent, low-maintenance cattle.
4 Ag Alert August 5, 2026
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