From The Fields ®
From the Fields is a firsthand report featuring insights from farmers and ranchers across the Golden State, including members of the California Farm Bureau. If you would like to be a contributor to From the Fields, submit your name, county of membership and contact information to agalert@cfbf.com.
Photo/Ching Lee
Photo/Richard Green
Al Medvitz Solano County sheep rancher and vineyard owner
Kevin Merrill Santa Barbara County winegrape grower
Pasture conditions are very wet. At this time of year, we’re really waiting for the grass- es to grow. They’re not very prolific now, but they are growing a little bit. We’re using a lot of our supplemental feed from our alfalfa stash that we grew last year. Pastures look very promising now with all the rain. In fact, we won’t have enough sheep to keep up with it. If the pastures are good enough, we can then harvest some of that as hay for next year. The fleece of sheep is rich in lanolin, so it’s water repellent. They don’t get soaking wet. They’re fine in the rain. The major issue when it gets wet like this is the health of their feet. Sheep could get foot rot from the mud. We take the necessary precautions; we trim their feet and run them through a foot bath. We don’t know what’s going on with prices, as they’ve fallen. We did very well last year on everything. Prices were very good on our lambs, and they stayed that way. We did very well, but we did not increase our flock; we keep it at about 1,600. We heard prices are going up again, but they’ve come down to more historic levels. We are leasing out the management of our winegrapes to another family. They have established their own brands and have done very well. They make a couple of very nice pinot noir products, a rosé and a bubbly. We’re looking to expand. We’re working on es- tablishing a reservoir because during the dry season, the Sacramento River gets salty, making the water not usable for grapes. We’re going to put in a reservoir so that we can capture water from the river during the winter when it’s not salty and blend it with our groundwater in the summer so that we have a good water supply for the grapes.
Along the Central Coast where I am particularly, we got over 6 inches of rain in one day. While that is great for the vineyard and the vines, it is a little much at one time. Things held up as well as they could. We are fixing places that have eroded. Where we had a few issues is where we’re developing new vineyards. The ground is open and prone to erosion, so we are battling that. You’re always susceptible when you put in a new orchard. We’re dealing with that, hoping that we don’t get a huge deluge. We hope this doesn’t exacerbate what’s already there, but we’ll put them back together. We’ve been through it before. We’re getting all the infrastructure in, the irrigation pipes and trellis systems. We’re able to get into the field. We started pruning crews. We’re a little behind but not much. We’ve gotten so used to not having any rain that you forget that sometimes you have pruning crews that work a couple of days and they’re off for the rain and they come back. We’ve forgotten that over the last five or six years, but we’ll work around that. The best news is we’re getting the rain, and we really need it. We’re looking at a better year marketwise. The market is stabilizing a little bit, and we are seeing a demand. Hopefully, the demand for fruit is up after going through the smoke taint a few years ago. We had a short year last year; it was a less-than-average crop, which is good for supply. We are extremely happy to get the rain and that we’re starting to get these reser- voirs going. Cachuma Lake is spilling again, and that is just great.
Brandon Fawaz Siskiyou County farmer
We’re not seeing near the water here that the rest of the state has seen. What we are getting is going to the ocean and some soaking in. We are experiencing what feels like a lot of rain, but realis- tically, it is probably somewhat close to a normal year that we would have received years ago. Right now, we have a lot of water going to the ocean and not staying around for beneficial uses, whether it is for agriculture or anything later in the season. Because our river system was designed by the Army Corps of Engineers to effectively drain Scott Valley because Scott Valley used to be wet and marshy, engineers made changes in the river so that it would drain, and the system is doing a good job draining. On the north end of the valley, even though we’ve had good rain, we’re still not seeing any of the creeks run yet. Farmers are looking now to start locking in fertilizer for the upcoming season. The fertilizer market has taken a dip, maybe not as large as some hoped, but it is time to start moving forward. There’s a lot of decisions to be made on what type of crops we’re going to plant, and for some, this will be balanced a little bit with seed availability. There is limited seed availability for cereal grains, which is what we use for a rotation crop. I suspect the lack of seed is because of the water restrictions and pressure on oth- er parts of the state. We had reduced crop yield due to water restrictions last summer, but the price on our hay has been strong, so farmers are optimistic going into the new year. Anytime you have rain happening and a de- cent commodity price, it’s a good feeling.
Photo/Courtesy Brandon Fawaz
4 Ag Alert January 18, 2023
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