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| News:
03/01/2010
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Organic farming at Landmark is a shear delight
Vin du Ramboullet may be next on the menu It’s not every day you look over at a familiar vineyard on the way home and see 126 pairs of eyeballs staring back at you. The vineyard belongs to Landmark Vineyards and the eyeballs belong to the 126 ewes and lambs who were grazing the tall growth between rows of dormant vines along Adobe Canyon Road in early February. “We are going organic with our farm,” Landmark spokesperson Deanna Holzapfel said about the sheep. Greg Stach, Landmark’s associate winemaker who heads up the organic developments at the vineyard, said the company’s entire 11 acres in Kenwood will be certified organic in three years. Using sheep to crop the weeds and fertilize the crop is sound green practice, he says. He intends to keep the hired herd around until “bud break” some time in March, the time when the plants start growing and looking very edible to the four-footed landscape crew.  Photo by Jay Gamel These sheep at Landmark are weedeaters and fertilizers in one. Longtime Sonoma Valley organic farming proponent, grower, winemaker and now vineyard manager Phil Coturri is managing Landmark’s vineyards through his company, Enterprise Vineyard Management. This is the first time Phil has used sheep in the process, though, and he’s excited about the prospects. “A lot of vineyards up in the hills have coyote and mountain lion problems. This seemed like a perfect spot to start our venture into using sheep for weed control,” Coturri said. The wet spring is another good reason to bring in sheep. The muddy soil makes it difficult to bring in heavy mowing equipment without churning up the soil. Sheep, on the other hand, tread lightly and can be brought in earlier. If weeds can be removed before they bloom and seed, they are much less of a problem the following year, Coturri pointed out. Getting the grass “mowed” early also helps with frost problems, since high weeds and grass call for more water to be sprayed – the primary frost protection in this area. “Kenwood’s valley floor is a notorious frost area,” he said and the cropped weeds reduce the incidence of frost within the plants’ growth zones. The sheep come from Willows, about 80 miles north on Interstate 5 heading to Redding. They are owned by Willy Hoffman who rents out groups of his 1,500 sheep herd to various agricultural operations two times a year. The rest of the time they are either at home in Willows or summering in southern Oregon to get out of the Central Valley furnace. “The demand has grown,” Hoffman said via cell phone from his pickup truck, somewhere in Northern California. “There are more organic and bio-diverse farmers trying to use them in rotation in their systems.” The ewes are Ramboullet variety, bred to hardy Suffolk Rams. The rams are too rambunctious for social work, so it’s the ewes and lambs who get to travel. The sheep are useful only when the vines are dormant, Hoffman says. “If that leaf comes out, sheep will go right for it. When the buds start to swell, the sheep have to go.” Hoffman says the cost of sheep versus machinery or hand weeding is comparable, “but they can do it in all areas; they are bio-diverse.” Sheep also leave great compost behind. The animals are not without maintenance needs, however. A portable electric fence is used to corral them in their immediate grazing areas, and needs to be moved and reset every few days to prevent overgrazing. And their hooves have to be guarded against too much water, or they can get infected, so they are fed special micro-nutrients to stay healthy. The sheep also need to be fenced and watched by an on-scene herder who stays near. They are not afraid of people, but Hoffman asks that people leave them alone. “My biggest concern has to do with dogs. They will run (the sheep) through the electric fence and they can’t run far due to their heavy wool coats.” The wool does keep the fence from actually harming them, but they get enough of a tingle to stay inside. At the end of the day, the sheep seem to be good for the land and good for business. “We are thrilled with them,” Stach said. “It’s silly, but everybody is excited to see them in the vineyard. Sunday, I noticed people slowing down and looking.” If you don’t see them this year, they’ll be baaaaaaack.
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