From the Fields: Benina Montes, Merced County tree crop grower and sheep rancher

Last year was hot. It was a hard year. But we got through it, and we’re looking forward to 2025. 

The cover crops are coming up. We’re hoping for some more rain. Keeping the soil covered is one of the most important things we can do for soil health, especially now when we’re in the rainy season. We want to make sure that we have a place for that raindrop to go when it comes so that we don’t lose it. The best place we can store water is in the ground. 

We’ve got buds pushing on our almonds. We’re still a ways off from bloom, but it’s coming. We’re excited to have bloom start. We’ve got everything pruned and shredded. We’re starting on replants, so we’re good.

We had a good olive harvest. Now they’re just hanging out. Markets were good. 

We’re also in the middle of lambing. Right now, the sheep are grazing. Typically, we would be fine, but we happen to be lambing, so we’re feeding them while they’re in the lambing area. All the rest that are not lambing are rotating through the orchard eating. During the summer, we do have to feed them or find a place for them to eat. 

We’re trying to expand on direct marketing for the meat, trying to get people to buy lamb through our brand, our website and sell to some local restaurants. We don’t do wool. We’re small, so we don’t have too much.