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Sheep replace army of Infineon weed whackers

RACETRACK BRINGS IN GRAZING ANIMALS, CUTTING COSTS, ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

CARNEROS – Infineon Raceway has hired several thousand wooly workers to mow its 1,600 acres of property, trimming the cost of weed control by 80 percent and significantly reducing the environmental impacts of using gas-powered equipment.

Each year the racetrack had been spending $40,000 on labor and burning up a dozen weed trimmers during 10-hour days of weed whacking before the company brought in more than 2,000 ewes this past winter, according to Jere Starks, vice president for facilities. The grazeforce increased to 3,000 in spring with the arrival of lambs.

As a bonus, Infineon Raceway received approval from the California Department of Forestry to allow the sheep’s munching around parking lots and entry roads to serve as firebreaks, saving the track more money on annual discing under of grass.

“I don’t see a downside to this so far,” Mr. Starks said. “We’re not using fuel. … I would notice spring was here because of the noise of those darn weed whackers.”

It also fits with the track’s aggressive waste-reduction program, which has recycled 56 tons of glass, plastic and aluminum bottles and cans since 2004. For the remaining trash, the company recently acquired a compactor to significantly reduce garbage truck trips. Shifting from the drone of mowers to the bleating of sheep has been a several-year, challenging process.

First came about 500 head of cattle to graze the 500-acre property fronting Lakeville Highway. However, the cows were sinking into the rain-soaked soil of the roads and multiple parking lots, creating a safety hazard for visitors that had to be fixed with tens of thousands of dollars a year in grading costs. Manure was also an issue.

In 2006 and 2007, Mr. Starks tried to rent a flock from west Marin County, but those deals fell through at the last minute because of shepherd-staffing issues, so he had to bring back the cows.

Then last fall on a flight home from Indianapolis, Mr. Starks happened to sit next to accountant-turned-sheep-rancher Don Watson, who lives in the Denver area but operates Wooly Weeders, a mowing service, and Napa Valley Lamb, a supplier of milk-fed spring lamb meat to top Bay Area restaurants. Ancillary businesses are dairy-sheep raising and grazing-land consulting businesses. Mr. Starks had found his flock.

Wooly Weeders now bases its North Bay flock of 2,000 to 3,000 ewes, plus two Peruvian shepherds and herding dogs, at Infineon Raceway. Units of 500 ewes, plus typically 700 lambs during spring and early summer, are transported to mowing jobs. The properties have to be at least 50 acres to justify the expense and time of a day each of loading and unloading a flock unit, according to Mr. Watson.

To control unwanted munching on open land, Wooly Weeders employs a mowing system called cell grazing to ensure the sheep crop not just the tasty grass, but also the weeds. The shepherds use photovoltaic-electrified mobile fencing to contain a flock unit and direct it to the next cell when the foliage is short enough.

Mowing clients include the exclusive Napa Valley Reserve winemaking club in St. Helena and Napa’s Artesa Vineyards & Winery, which is managed by Nord Coast Vineyard Management.

Use of farm animals in vineyard weed management, particularly goats and sheep, has been growing in popularity in recent years because of labor costs and requirements for organic and biodynamic certification. Navarro Vineyards in Mendocino County has rented a flock from Canvas Ranch near Petaluma.

However, both animals can nibble on not only weeds, but also fine shoots and grape clusters. For example, Kiger Vineyards in Sonoma Valley started to use Olde English Babydoll sheep to mow its 3.5 acres of hillside grapes, but found that the short sheep could reach the valuable shoots and grapes from the uphill side.

In vineyards, Wooly Weeders’ “workers” are moved out of vineyards during initial shoot growth but allowed back in for a second round of mowing before verasion.

Wooly Weeders started 15 years ago when some of Mr. Watson’s sheep got loose from his Calistoga ranch and snacked on Robert Mondavi Winery pinot noir clusters just before harvest. Donation of a couple lambs for the Napa Valley Wine Auction smoothed out the situation and turned into a $10,000-a-year mowing and fertilizing contract for 500 acres of Mondavi vines that continued until Constellation Brands acquired Mondavi in 2004.

From that contract, Mr. Watson realized that sheep ranchers need to get serious about getting paid for mowing and fertilizing rather than letting their sheep eat all the profits on paid grazing land.

Sheep ranchers get money for wool and meat, but they can double their revenue by following the example of a lot of North Coast goat ranchers and ink mowing contracts. In an economic comparison of raising 1,000 ewes versus 1,000 does, Mr. Watson is set to tell a trade group gathering of sheep ranchers in July that the typical model of raising 1,000 ewes will lose money whereas income-generating grazing for as many does is cash-flow positive.

That’s partly to blame, along with a switch from wool clothes to synthetics, for a drop in U.S. sheep stock from 60 million head in the mid-1900s to 6 million today.

“It is economics that have driven sheep off the range,” Mr. Watson said.

For more information, contact Wooly Weeders at www.woolyweeders.com.