From the Fields: Gino Pedretti III, ​​Merced County farmer 

By Gino Pedretti III
Merced County farmer 

It’s been a good season so far with the weather being cooler. Our dairy production has been good this summer. We grow cotton, corn, alfalfa and wheat, and everything’s looking promising. The cotton will start harvesting in mid-October. The last couple years have been rough yields, but it’s looking like there’s more on the crop this year. 

We’re in the middle of silage harvest, and it looks like yields are going to be 2 to 5 tons more an acre compared to last year. The quality looks nice. The corn seemed to like the cooler summer and didn’t get impacted by too many days over a hundred degrees. The alfalfa tests have been higher than normal because of the cooler summer, and yields are decent. 

Record-high beef prices have helped our beef and dairy operation. Cull cows are record highs. Bull sales have been good because of the record-high beef prices, so we’ve been really blessed. The milk price has dropped. Hopefully, that turns around. Luckily, with the high beef prices, we’ve been able to mitigate some of that. But if it stays low, it’s going to start hurting the dairy industry. 

We’re lucky with the labor situation. We’re a smaller dairy, and all the crops we grow can be mechanically harvested. The majority of our employees have been with us for years. We have some full time on the dairy, a guy that’s full time on the beef cows, and our farm labor also helps with the cattle. In the winter, we’re fixing up stuff around the dairy and beef operation. That’s why we’re able to keep guys year-round.  

We’ve been fortunate that we’ve had enough water. We’re fortunate to be in an irrigation district that’s had surface water for the last three years. We pray for rain this winter so we can keep having surface water to irrigate with and not have to cut back on acres and rely on well water.

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