From the Fields - Domenic Carinalli

By Domenic Carinalli, Sonoma County winegrape grower and dairy farmer

We’re in a huge downpour of rain. We got 12 inches (last Thursday). We’re doing the minimum and trying to stay above water. One thing that’s good is we got all our hay planted before the rain. We’re getting ready to start pruning our winegrapes, but you’re not going to prune much in this weather. Half the vineyard is underwater. It’s just a matter of waiting it out. We normally start pruning the Monday after Thanksgiving. But this year, it’s going to be a little later. It’s a lake out there.

There were lots of grapes and few buyers this year, although we did sell everything under contract, so everything was good. The quality (of the grapes) was good. Prices were a little bit lower than they have been in the past. Production was a little lower too, which was maybe a good thing because there’s a lot of wine in the market. If we had more (grapes), then it’d be harder to sell. With a little less crop, it’s probably better for the industry.

We grow our own oat hay and silage. Production was good. We had plenty of hay for the heifers and dry cows, so I didn’t have to buy any hay other than alfalfa because we don’t grow alfalfa hay in this area at all.

We ship to a good creamery—Clover. They’re doing very well. I have no complaints about them. When we went organic years ago, we cut way back on the number of cows, and we’re still down. Hopefully, we get a lot of heifers so we can build up a little bit. We grow a little every year, but we don’t grow very much because cows get old, and you’ve got to replace them. We used to milk 350 cows, and now we’re less than a hundred, so it’d be nice to get back up to 150 or a little over a hundred.