Would you keep or turn into pasture space. lol
Unless you want to set up a fruit stand and sell them, I’d probably fence off two vines (well, who doesn’t like grapes? grape jam, jelly…), and turn the rest back into pasture.
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Do you need the space? If not, I would see if someone would like to lease your acre of grapes and make some $$. Vineyards can take a looooong time to grow.
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A friend did just that long ago.
They became part of a wine co-op and the co-op took care of managing it, since she and her DH had very busy jobs.
Their wines even won some prices and they made some money from it.
If you are interested in something like that, find out who in your area may be part of such programs.
If you can’t find those on your own, maybe ask the local USDA Farm Service Agency who may be a vintner in your area and contact them?
Once you know what taking care of the vineyard may entail, you can decide if you want to keep it going or pull them up.
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Is this a trick question? Wine wins.
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Well, keeping the vineyard would be a good excuse to have a few sheep. Watch your sheep graze, while enjoying your wine! 
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you might have more than your think
1 ton of grapes yields about 60 cases of wine or 720 bottles. If you put all that together, a very low-yielding vineyard that produces 2 tons per acre makes about 1,440 bottles…that gives you nearly 4 bottles per day to drink
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I live on a vineyard. The property is a commercial supplier of grapes for local vineyards.
In my area, grapes take A LOT of work. The property owners and their staff are out there every day, sometimes sun up til sundown spraying and treating with who knows what. This year they still got almost nothing of value. I’m sure it’s not as hard other places.
If you choose to turn the space into pasture, that’s a lot of wire to remove to make it horse safe…
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IDK, could you lease the grape acre to someone that produces wine? Sort of how some folks will lease acreage to those that produce hay?
Just a random thought!
Or just go the “I Love Lucy” route and make some wine yourself! BTW…lots of video would be required! :winkgrin:
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What’s more valuable to you ? Pasture or vinifera grape ? Wines are not an easy product. Much equipment, work, knowledge and luck are required. Also Grapes are very sensitive to pasture herbicides. A slight wiff of 2,4, D will curl their noses out of joint.
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LOL yes is this a trick question? Only you could possibly know the answer. An acre of grapes would yield a lot, but grapes require special care to grow well.
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What did the previous owners do with the grapes? Are the vines the best producing grapes for your area? How old are the vines? Will removing the grapes affect the taxes on the property?
i considered planting grapes on some extra acreage on my farm and learned it’s way more work than you’d think. The return was so small for the time, money and work invested.
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What Marla 100 said. Without more information (I suspect you know what they were used for), we can’t help. If they were leased or can be leased with no help from you, unless you’re interested in doing so, I’d keep that going as a income producer. If you need the land for pasture you can certainly tear them out.
I think that keeping the vines healthy and productive takes a decent amount of time and effort? If you don’t want to tackle that then plow them under or find someone who does .
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I’d find out what kind of grapes they are. I would think it would be more productive to keep the grapes and have someone else be in charge of managing them. Find out who the “Grape School” is in your area. I’m in CA and UCDavis has a whole wine program. If I had that property in CA I would contact someone at UCDavis.
https://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/#/
I’m sure they would be able to give me some good leads and/or try your local winegrowers organization. Good luck.
A Grape is a Terrible thing to Waste!!!
Yes… I cry over spilled wine.
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Depends upon the area and the type of grapes. But as has been suggested I’d certainly research it
You know that saying “How do you make a small fortune in the horse business? Start with a big fortune.” Well I’d say that 10 times over with a vineyard.
DH & I live in the heart of northern Michigan fruit growing country. DH is manger of 2500+ acres of cherries and apples and, at one time about, 20 acres of vineyard that came with a larger parcel his operation acquired. The grapes were the most labor intensive/least profitable crop and are now leased out to a winery operator. You would not believe what it takes to raise a decent grape crop.
Unfortunately 1 acre is probably too small for anyone seriously into wine production to be interested in leasing or caring for it. To them it would just be a PITA. So you’ll either have to go all in or all out. There really isn’t an easy middle ground. Harvest labor will be your biggest challenge. If you think getting quality hay cut and baled between rains is tough, I’ll just say it’s a piece of cake compared to getting grapes picked and pressed for a quality wine.
If you want, give it a try for a year or two, but I know where I’m putting my bet already. (Hint: many, no most. of the vineyards in our area were started by retired business executives from Chicago, Indianapolis and other major cities south of us. These were not dumb people, but they were dreamers when it came to becoming gentlemen farmers. The large majority of those operations have changed hands once or twice a decade and it wasn’t for the tax maneuvering either. They found out it was REAL work.
Keep half a dozen vines for your own amusement. You’ll be much happier , have enough wine to give for holiday gifts and maybe have time to ride your horse. That is really why you bought the farm isn’t it?
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Thanks for the feed back. Original owners have been making wine for themselves and said they let people come pick your own for some money. They told me it was a ton of work but they were retired and enjoyed making wine. My concern is this The vineyard is beautiful to look at very pretty and my realtor says I should keep vineyard because it adds value to the property. I dont even like wine so I have no plans to make wine if It cant add $$ to the bottomline. Dread what it will cost to pull out all the vines, wires and the the concrete that holds up the lines. Or do I just let it be and let it do whatever.
Friend, once they quit caring for the vines, just let them be, didn’t have to do anything else.
They are still just sticks there, all these years later.
Not sure that would be what you may want to do, especially if they become an eyesore where they are and lose their value as sticks, not producing vines any more.
Could you go to your local USDA Farm Service Agency and see what records they may have on your land and on the vineyard and maybe what they suggest?
Never hurts to pick as many brains as you can when you don’t know much about something.
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Are you planning to flip the property?
Because if you are planning to live there for years and not care for the grapes, I don’t see how they would add to the property value. An acre of overgrown, unpruned grapes is not going to add value in 10 years. It will just be someone else’s mess to clean up.
How many acres did you buy? And in what area of the country? Did you pay more for the property because of the grapes? If you didn’t, then I doubt anyone else would, either. And your realtor is just making stuff up.
I’m actually finding it hard to believe you bought this property already and don’t know whether you can make a profit off the grapes or not. Or what it will cost to get rid of them. It would be similar to clearing woods to make pasture. It can be done, but it’s not usually recommended if there are other options because it’s expensive.
There is nothing cheap about buying a farm. And in general, there are not many ways to make money from a horse property unless you are giving lessons or breeding. And even those are risky ventures.
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