From the Fields: Domenic Carinalli, Sonoma County organic dairy farmer and conventional winegrape grower

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

It’s been fairly warm, and the cows are doing very well. Milk production is about right. Prices are good. 

There’s a lot of people that are breeding their dairy cows to beef, which enhances the income off the dairy. I’m not doing that because I have a pretty small herd, and I need all the heifers I can get. 

Alfalfa hay is reasonable enough. It’s about the same price as last year. There’s a fair amount of it. There’s some raised in California, but the majority of it is coming out of Nevada, and prices seem to be fairly stable. We raise our own silage, and production is real good. We had a good spring with good rains and plenty of warm weather, so the silage grew good. There’s plenty of it around. 

Organic milk prices have been good probably the last six months or so, and they’re holding up real well. Demand is real high for organic milk. Quite a few people have switched creameries for different reasons. 

As for winegrapes, I’ve got a lot of it for sale. It’s a pretty sad story right now. We have a nice crop, but there’s just no buyers. I’m keeping things the way they are. Hopefully, (the market) turns around. It’s a smaller crop than last year. We had a bumper crop last year. This year it’s a little more average. It’s a shame to let it go to plot, but what are you going to do? If you haven’t got a buyer, you haven’t got a buyer.

It’s close to harvesting time. Some (vineyards) are being harvested already. We haven’t harvested. Hopefully, we’ll start in a week or two. But you’ve got to sell it first. We had just one small lot sold. If we don’t get it sold, we’ll probably just let it go, leave it on the vines and let the birds have it. Normally, we have it all netted. This year we haven’t netted anything. It’s a tough year. 

In this edition…

• Regenerative label payoff remains murky
• Paintballs among new tools allowed for hazing wolves
• Influence starts with engaged Farm Bureau members
• USDA seeks to ease organic certification process, costs
• From the Fields: Chris Jergenson, Merced and Stanislaus counties organic farmer
• From the Fields: Ben Lyons, Solano County farmer
• From the Fields: Domenic Carinalli, Sonoma County organic dairy farmer and conventional winegrape grower
• From the Fields: Katie Herzog, Monterey County agave grower
• New 'smart' farm tech targets vegetable production
• Growth in organic milk presents market challenges
• Advocacy in Action: Packaging requirements, labor, beef cattle, trade, compost, Roadless Rule and disaster relief
• How you can make the switch to regenerative farming
• Summit seeks to strengthen agritourism
• Leopold award finalists for 2026 selected