(09-23-2021, 09:35 PM)Senor Fantastico Wrote:

(09-23-2021, 07:09 PM)Jags Wrote: How easy is it to switch to a different crop?  I’m sure there are “players” that have a quota or so for different buyers.  Or something of the sorts.  Can you switch up the field and sell other crops easily or are you stuck short term on the grapes/raisins? 

You make it sound easy, but the transition to DOV Seems to be easy enough?? No? You’ve stated the risks.  Maybe try a percentage one year and see how it goes before fully going all in?

Asking the tough questions Jags haha, you have keen insight. I could go into all this better over a few beers but I'll do my best here. 

It's easy to switch crops, but it isn't cheap. That's the number 1 hindrance for a grower of my size. You'd be stopping all your revenue (tearing your field out with a bulldozer) and paying a significant amount to replant the whole field. Then you'll be waiting 3-4 years for any permanent crop to develop enough to even break even on a harvest. That overhead vineyard in the first tweet up there runs about 12k per acre to plant for instance. Then you'll spend a out 1.5k per acre each year to grow them. 

So let's say you replant a 40 acre vineyard block. You'll spend something like $750,000 before you ever make a dime back. 

On the other side of the problem is you need someone to buy your crop. If you have almonds, buyers will fight over you. Other stuff can be dicey. Where I sell raisins I'm a cooperative member, so they can't really get rid of me. That's a another big issue for growers my size, and a large reason why I'll probably stay in raisins of some form. Sometimes people don't have a permanent home, and every year you have to negotiate a cash contract with a buyer. Some years when there is abundant supply you can probably guess how that goes for a small grower. 

As to your last few questions, what makes the DOV possible is the development of a handful of early ripening vine species over the last 30 years or so. Most vineyard here are Thompson Seedless variety and they don't build proper sugar until about Labor Day. At that point you have about 30 days to dry the fruit naturally before it gets too cold. Much too short for doing DOV, which needs something like 80 days. 

So for me, I'll have to replant to new vines, and if I'm doing the vines it makes sense to do a different trellis system at the same time. I have the vines picked out, but I'm a little hung up on two different trellis styles I like, the single high wire or an open gable. The each have different advantages, but neither exist yet with the particular vine species I've picked out so I don't really have much prior knowledge to lean on. Just gonna wing it lol. 

Btw, you were also onto something by saying do a percentage, the open gable style trellis would allow me to keep the same spacing and I'd absolutely replace the fields in thirds. 

Anyway, there's probably a little more to it but I didn't wanna write a full page, anything else you're curious about lmk.

To the bolded,    Give me another 6 years on the board and I might be able to come up with another good question.  Haha.  


Thanks for the reply.  I think I’ve mentioned before, but I’m fascinated by people with careers like you.  It may not even be in agriculture. Like crabbers, those guys too.  So much knowledge to need/have and money to put into it just to have other factors out of your control make or break a season.  Weather, prices for the product, etc. not only that, you’re doing something that some of us are interested/curious about (even if it’s on a much smaller scale to become less dependent on grocery stores and to try to get to “off the grid” status.). But you do it on a much bigger scale, and for a living.  I think it’s cool as [BLEEP].  If I ever come up with another intelligent question, I’m definitely gonna bug you about it! 

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