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Olagaray Family Holding Onto By Colleen Schreiber LODI, Calif. — Diego Olagaray and his family have been running sheep in the Sacramento Valley since their Basque immigrant father, Salvador Olagaray, came here as a shepherd in the early 1950s. The sheep industry is a fraction the size it used to be back then, and the Olagaray family is one of the few commercial sheep operators left in northern California. Just five years ago they ran upwards of 5000 ewes. Today they’re down to about 3000 ewes, still a fair number, but changes in California have been so dramatic that the cost of continuing to run sheep is a daily challenge. Urban encroachment is one of the biggest changes and the biggest challenge, Olagaray says. Their headquarters operation is located on the edge of the Stockton city limits. "Just a few years ago we were trailing ewes down this road,
moving them from field to field. Now there’s all this new
construction. Other places have already been developed." "There are other alternatives here," Olagaray notes. "Unlike other places, we can grow a different crop or we can always build homes." The family is smack in the middle of a heated controversy about whether to maintain this area near Lodi as a "greenbelt" or let it be developed. Though the matter tears at him, Olagaray believes it is in his family’s best interest to allow the area to be developed. "We’re fighting the greenbelt because we could make four or five times more money selling the property," Olagaray says. "We really can’t farm it anymore because of urban encroachment. It costs us more to operate in a greenbelt because of all of the restrictions. Because of the proximity to development, we’re limited on things like pesticide application and the use of certain tools like crop dusters. We’re limited on when we can harvest. There’s the noise impact, the dust impact. All those things have to be considered. "Citizens want the greenbelt, but they don’t want to pay for it," he continues. "I would like for it to remain the way it is, but I also want to be fairly compensated for the true value of the land," he adds. "Because of the proximity to urban areas, the value of this land is not the same as its ag value. It’s much greater." Olagaray also worries some about striking an agreement that is meant to be in perpetuity. "How do I pass the land on to my grandchildren without knowing what the economic value for wine grapes might be 50 years from now? That’s a huge problem," he points out. Before urban encroachment, sheepmen had to deal with the changes brought on by irrigation. "At one time, California used to be a vast semiarid desert land," Olagaray points out. "The federal and state water projects which came during the 1950s and 60s changed the whole landscape. Farmers could begin to irrigate, and the sheep got pushed out to the hills and some got pushed out altogether." But the Olagaray family has survived by adapting to each and every one of those changes. Diversity has been the key. "If we didn’t change and adapt the way we have over the last 10 to 15 years, with the way economics are in California, we wouldn’t have survived. "In our area, all the lands are private and it would be rather difficult to make it on sheep alone, especially supporting two families." The cost to do business in California, he says, is significantly higher than in other states, particularly when it comes to commercial sheep. "We have the highest workmen’s comp rates in the Union. We pay higher wages to our H-2A shepherds than any other state. Room and board is more expensive here. Couple all those things with the fact that we now have to truck all of our sheep rather than trail them. We have higher fuel costs because we’re so spread out, and we’re spread out because it’s more and more difficult to find residue crops to graze. You start adding all those costs up, and our margins get really squeezed." Today the four basic commodities raised on the Olagaray farm are lamb and wool, wine grapes, alfalfa and wheat. Wine grapes are at the top of the list as far as gross income, he says, and sheep and alfalfa are tied for second. Olagaray and his brother handle all the farming and their father, for the most part, still oversees the sheep operation. Today their commercial herd consists of about 3000 Rambouillet ewes crossed back to Suffolk bucks. The ewes lamb in the alfalfa fields beginning around the first of October. It’s not uncommon for them to have a 110 percent lamb crop. Twinning accounts for about 30 to 40 percent of that total. They’re able to maintain a high lambing percentage because they manage their twins more intensely. Instead of leaving them out in the fields, the ewes with twins are brought to their headquarters and supplemented for at least two weeks. The ewes and their lambs leave the alfalfa fields and head to grass in the Sierra foothills 80 or so miles to the north near Woodland, Davis and Dunnigan. At one time the sheep were trailed to grass, but today everything is trucked. Twenty years ago some 20,000 head of sheep grazed the Dunnigan Hills region. Today the Olagarays’ 1500 head are all that are left here. Lambs are weaned in May and weigh about 120 pounds off grass. The last few years they’ve sold their lambs to Colorado feedyards. The ewes continue to graze the native vegetation until it dries up, about mid-June. By then, harvesting of small grains is nearing the end. The ewes are trucked back to the fields, where they follow the harvester and graze the residue. Once that source is depleted, some of the bands go to the Delta area, where they graze fresh market tomato fields, cucumbers, melons and other vegetable crops. The Olagarays have two proven shepherds who stay with the sheep while they’re grazing the foothills. Each shepherd is responsible for a band which averages about 1500 head. The shepherds are critically important when the ewes are grazing the Delta, as well. About four years ago, Olagaray began grazing the understory in their vineyards. Controlled grazing is a form of integrated pest management. It’s considered a more friendly way of farming because it allows him to reduce pesticide use and weed control. About 550 yearling ewes can graze a 15-acre quadrant for five or six days. Controlled grazing in the vineyards in the Lodi area, Olagaray says, is not all that common because few have access to sheep and the demand for that type of grazing involves a relatively short window, typically from January to March. "Once you have bud break, you have to get the sheep out because they’ll eat the new growth," he explains. "Some vineyards are trellised higher, like ours. We could probably graze all the way until maybe the first of June." Most sheep operators in northern California shear in April, but Olagaray has broken tradition and shears the first of March. Availability of a good Kiwi shearing crew, he says, is the primary reason. The days also are warming up by March, and the ewes just do better once they have their heavy coats removed. The lambs are able to nurse better, as well. Olagaray sells the wool through a marketing cooperative. It’s the only one left on the West Coast, and Olagaray is a member of the board. "Just a couple of years ago we were processing over three million pounds a year," Olagaray remarks. "This past year we were down to 2.3 million pounds. It’s dropped about 30 percent in two years. It’s indicative of what’s going on with the sheep industry in California." Ninety percent of the alfalfa they raise is sold to local dairies. Generally they’ll get six to seven cuts off the alfalfa. The sheep graze the alfalfa stubble from October through the first of February. They also lease alfalfa stubble for grazing from other area farmers. After about six years, the alfalfa fields are converted into corn, wheat or barley. The sheep also graze the wheat and barley stubble. Some of their alfalfa fields have been converted into vineyards. If maintained properly, the vineyards will be productive for a good 30 years. Olagaray got into wine grapes in a big way beginning in about 1993. The shift, he says, was all about economics. "The land had become too valuable to continue to grow alfalfa and wheat, so it went to vineyards," Olagaray explains. "We had two choices: either sell the property at a higher price or make the change and develop some vineyards." The Lodi area, he says, has been a grape growing region for about 100 years. Until about 20 years ago, most everyone grew table grapes. When the wine boom hit, the switch to wine grapes was made and today the area is almost 100 percent wine grapes. The Olagarays have about 600 acres of wine grapes. It’s a capital-intensive operation, requiring about $8000 an acre just to get a field established, and a good crop isn’t made until about the third year. Grapes can be labor-intensive, as well. The vines have to be pruned annually. Those that are trained to grow on trellises can be topped mechanically, but the majority of the pruning has to be done by hand. Olagaray has about 70 pruners working in his fields in January. One man can prune about half an acre per day. The grapes are mechanically harvested in the fall. Harvesting is done at night and lasts about six weeks. Olagaray grows chardonnay and zinfandel grapes. Some varieties, he says, are more disease-prone, and some yield better than others. Some varieties have to be picked at a later maturity, which makes them a bit riskier because of the weather factor. "Grapes will make about 170 gallons per ton, and we’re getting about 10 tons per acre from our chardonnay variety and about 12 tons on the zinfandel," Olagaray says. The grapes become the property of the winery upon delivery. Olagaray does business with five or six different wineries. Like most growers, he negotiates a long-term pre-plant contract with a winery before the vines even go in the ground. The contract usually allows the grower to recoup his initial planting investment. For the most part, the wineries leave the grape production to the growers, though a winery sometimes has some input on cultural practices, particularly if it relates to quality. Most contracts, Olagaray points out, specify some quality parameters. If those parameters aren’t met, the winery has the option of rejecting the grapes. This semiarid Mediterranean climate with little to no rainfall during the growing season is ideal for growing grapes and other agricultural commodities, but it also means that farmers are totally reliant on irrigation. The Lodi area sits seven feet below irrigation level, so all their irrigation water comes out of the delta system by gravity flow. The water is free, in essence. They only pay a reclamation fee to maintain the levees, keep them from flooding, and to keep the utilities paid on the drainage. Olagaray expects that the fight between the cities and the farmers
over water will intensify in the coming years. Olagaray tries to remain optimistic about their future in the sheep industry, but he understands the futility of fighting change and growth, and that continued urban encroachment is inevitable. "There’s only so much you can do," he remarks. "We won’t get out of the sheep industry as long as my father’s alive. Sheep are in our blood." |
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