From the Fields - Domenic Carinalli

By Domenic Carinalli, Sonoma County winegrape grower and organic dairy farmer

For the winegrapes, we grow pinot, chardonnay and pinot grigio. We got done harvesting for the year about two weeks ago. Everything went well. We had a different harvesting season with the rain and the heat, so we had to work through it with the wineries and pickers. Everybody was very cooperative, and it went very well. The grapes were off just a little bit from my average, but we had a nice crop, and the quality was excellent.

The dairy business is tough. We’re just trying to survive. I’m not milking that many cows, but we’re trying to hang on. We’ve had about three dairies go out of business here in Sonoma County in the last few weeks. With the dairy industry, once you go out, you’ll never go back again.

It’s kind of a different world. The costs are just so high. It’s crazy. The cost of everything is up. The cost of hay and grains is up, and I’m sure a lot has to do with the war in Ukraine because they have a huge amount of grain. It goes all over the world, and that’s been basically stopped. We’re getting hay from Nevada and everywhere; it’s almost like gold. Our prices are decent, but under these conditions, there’s just not a lot of money. It’s just a matter of trying to hang on right now.

The tertiary-treated water that we get from the city of Santa Rosa came to an end last week. The city finally got their ponds down where they want them, but we’re basically done irrigating anyway. We’ve got some pasture that we’d like to irrigate, but right now, that’s not going to happen. It’s the end of the season.