From the Fields - Al Medvitz

By Al Medvitz, Solano County sheep rancher and vineyard owner

The weather has been really favorable this year with the rains. The pastures look good. People are starting to harvest their crops like wheat and barley, which we have, and some people have planted safflower.

With the sheep, we’re finishing off our marketing of last year’s harvest. We have a few hundred lambs that remain to be marketed. Lamb prices fell and are significantly down. Sheep prices are historically volatile, but we are hopeful that prices will stabilize and go up. We are also repairing fences and getting ready for next year.

It has been a real chore to get permitting. We want to put in a reservoir for our grape vineyard so that we can pump water out of the river when it is fresh and in full supply in the winter, and then use it over the summer. It’s not a huge reservoir, but it’s something. We’ve been tied up in permitting and negotiating with the land trust to get it done.

We have some old water wells, one in particular that is close to 75 years old that needs to be replaced. It’s not a big irrigation well, but we’ve had to wait in line for a long time to get it repaired because of the demand. Everybody is drilling wells. Our water well is starting to fall apart, and we had to go into emergency mode with a well digger to get it done.