From the Fields - Joe Valente

Joe Valente

San Joaquin County winegrape and almond farmer

We’re probably two to three weeks behind normal in the vineyards. We’re anticipating starting harvest the last week of August if not the first week of September. The same thing with almonds. They’re probably two to three weeks later than normal. Last year we were already harvesting at this time. 

There’s not too many work crews out. We’re doing some tying and training in the vineyards, but not a whole lot. It’s more anticipation of waiting to get the call to start harvest.

If it’s a compacted season with all commodities, our concern would be trucking. If everyone has a shortened season, everyone will be competing for trucking and for labor at the same time. 

The tomato season seems to be late. A lot of times they start in early August, so we’re not all competing for the same trucking companies. If they’re stretched out and still trying to haul tomatoes and do some almonds and grapes, there are only so many trucks, and there’s only so many drivers. A lot of trucking firms have the equipment—the trucks and trailers—but not enough people to drive them. 

We have a good, steady workforce on our ranches that work year-round, and then some that don’t work year-round but tend to come back for harvest. We’re almost all mechanical harvesting in the winegrapes and the almonds. We don’t do a lot of hand-picking in the grapes at all, so that helps.  

We’re all looking at whether there are any forecasted rains. It’s always a concern during harvest. With the almonds, if they’re shook and on the ground and we get rain, it’s hard to get them dried, and you don’t want to get mold on them. The same thing with the grapes. If the sugar content is high enough and you get some early rains, you could start getting some decay on the grapes.