Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

Day 7: Making memories (and wine!) at Montgras Estate

We started the day with the anticipation of our last stop of the day - wine tasting at Montgras Estates! Alas we had a few stops before getting to the winery. 

Our first stop was with a visit with a small vegetable and fruit producer. Luis Carrasco Saldana is a forward-thinking farmer who took the initiative three years ago to further educate himself and a small group of fellow farmers on upgrading their irrigation systems.  With a well only four meters deep he irrigates his cherries, onions, melons and beans for the local market. His advice to us was to do everything with love.  

With irrigation on our minds our next stop was with Graciela who oversees all of the water systems in the area.  In the past six years, due to climate change, Chile has lost 30% of its rain and the river water is down 40%.  The biggest challenge is trying to get the government to acknowledge the need for dams and policy and to act on getting those dams constructed. This would allow water to be distributed more efficiently and recharge aquifers used by wells in the regions.  

Our lunch was enjoyed overlooking a vineyard at Vino Bello on their outdoor terrace complete with horse and wagon. This offered several photo opportunities with the vineyard in the background and a warm breeze blowing around us.  We enjoyed some wine, the vista and great conversation. 

Little did we know that on our final stop of the day we would become Montgras Estates newest winemakers upon our arrival! Gonzalos Silva guided us on our adventure in harvesting and making wine.   He gave us a bucket and some shears and we each got to experience picking our bucket of grapes. Then came the fun part - we took off our shoes and rolled up our pants and savoured the adventure of crushing grapes and watching the juice fill our buckets. To feel the grapes squeeze between our toes and the sweet juice bursting out was a therapeutic experience.  We cleaned up and proceeded with our tour of how they make wine with today's technology. White wine is cool fermented with only the juice and red is warm fermented with the whole grape skin seeds and all.  

Gonzalos instructed us in the proper wine tasting technique to first smell then swirl and smell again and finally taste by swirling in our mouths before swallowing. As Gonzalos says, “a good wine is the one you like the taste of" – so find the one you like and enjoy.   

We returned to Rancagua to enjoy our final night in Chile! Tomorrow we depart for Argentina.

-Class 15

 

Views: 259

Comment

You need to be a member of Ontario Agriculture to add comments!

Join Ontario Agriculture

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Farm Equipment's Best of the Web: Dec. 1, 2023

Farm Equipment editors encounter a variety of articles, social media posts, podcasts and videos that offer a unique look at various aspects of our great farm machinery industry. Here is our favorite content from the past week from across the web: Proven in the most demanding of ag conditions, CLEANFIX reversible fans provide the most efficient diesel engine cooling and radiator cleaning available. The multi-patented reversing fan technology maintains machine cooling as needed and, when required, provides the strongest blowout of dust and debris -- without halting or slowing operations. Will New Holland Combine Get Enough Votes to Become Lego Set? Before Lego will consider putting the set into production, the design must first receive 10,000 votes. The project has been on the site since Nov. 13 and now has 1,982 votes, but voting is still open for 590 days. Marketing’s Next Frontier — Through Seed? Flowers appear on this California hillside in the shape of McDonald’s iconic ‘M’ logo.

Preparing for the Next Generation of Precision Technology

Recent generations of ag technology have seen new features undercut by rising reliability problems, says Clay Mitchell, co-founder and managing director of Silicon Valley-based Fall Line Capital, a farmland and venture investment firm. Mitchell says the shift to autonomy will accelerate reliability problems beyond anything we’ve seen before. The fifth-generation farmer (the precision farming “poster boy” of the 1990s and 2000s), who holds board seats on Farmwise, Guardian Ag, Pluton Biosciences and Sound Ag, says the role of dealer technicians to keep North America’s farm fleet running is about to increase 10 fold. During the 2024 Precision Farming Dealer Summit, Mitchell will set the stage for what’s yet to come in precision farming, and how to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead. During Clay Mitchell's presentation, attendees can expect to learn: 1. How to service new technology/equipment coming to the market 2. The skills that are needed to support farming in 2024 & beyond

APAS report shows food prices are not driven by the price at the farm gate

The Agricultural Producers of Saskatchewan have released their final report on Farmers and Food Prices. President Ian Boxall said they wanted the report to clear the air, as some people thought the increase in food prices was related to the increase in commodity prices. APAS worked with Kevin Grier Market Analysis and Consulting to determine the farmer’s share of the retail price of eight products flour, bread, canola oil, margarine, lentils, beer, retail beef, and retail pork. The report uses the USDA's methodology to determine the quantity of a farm commodity required to produce a unit of the final consumer food product. Boxall says the independent study indicates that food prices are not driven by the farm gate. "For example, the total retail price of canola oil went up 41%. They've started to fall off now, but when this report was done, the farmer share only went up 18%. So yes, the farmer got extra when the price went up, but not comparative to what it went up on the groce

At White House Tribal Nations Summit, USDA Fulfills Long-Standing Tribal Requests to Strengthen Food Sovereignty and Expand Indigenous Roles in Forest Management

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced ways the Biden-Harris Administration is fulfilling long-standing Tribal requests for USDA to support and better partner with Tribal Nations in empowering Tribal food sovereignty and co-stewardship of federal lands and waters. Secretary Vilsack announced the first grant recipients under the Indigenous Animals Harvesting and Meat Processing Grant Program, as well as advances in Forest Service co-stewardship with Tribes, including 120 new agreements totaling more than $68 million in investments. Secretary Vilsack also announced the inaugural appointees of the new Tribal Advisory Committee. Secretary Vilsack made the announcements at the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit, where Tribal leaders gathered for Nation-to-Nation conversations with President Biden and senior administration officials on key priorities, new policies and critical issues facing Tribal Nations. “As Tribes have requested, we are reshaping

On-farm technology report findings released

Astudy of American farmers’ adoption of precision agriculture technology indicates that during the first two decades of the 21st century, acreage farmed with automated systems has increased 10-fold or more. The findings are reported in a study conducted by Kansas State University precision agriculture economist Terry Griffin and colleagues with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. The report, Precision Agriculture in the Digital Era: Recent Adoption on U.S. Farms, is available online. Griffin said the report studies adoption of precision technology on several major crops, including corn, soybean, winter wheat, grain sorghum and more. “The most adopted technologies typically have the word ‘automated’ in their names,” Griffin said. “The reason for that is that they tend to make life a little bit easier for the operators than if they didn’t have the technology.” As an example, Griffin said equipment that provides automated guidance makes life easier for farm

© 2023   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service