DeBernardi has been a leader on Sonoma County’s farm front for more than 50 years
By Tim Tesconi
Looking back, Petaluma dairy rancher Don DeBernardi, who has milked cows for more than 60 of his 87 years on earth, said he would do it all over again despite the many challenges including roller-coaster milk markets and the unrelenting 365 day-a-year schedule.
DeBernardi said dairy farming encompasses all that he loves – cows, hard work and the family working together on their own land, values that are part of his proud Swiss heritage.
“Dairy farming is a great family life because the kids are always with us when we are working no matter if it’s the barn or the fields,” said DeBernardi, the family patriarch who wanted to be a dairy farmer ever since he was a kid. He did not grow up on a dairy farm but the urge to tend cows seems to be part of his DNA.
When he graduated from Petaluma High School in 1957, he started building his dairy herd one heifer calf at a time while working as a clerk at the historic Volpi’s Market in Petaluma.
“I bought my first heifer at the Petaluma Auction Yard,” he said. Today he’s milking 650 cows that are certified organic on a ranch in Two Rock. It’s where three generations of the DeBernardi Family work together to produce milk on coastal farmland that spreads over 2,000 acres of owned and leased property.
Wife Bonnie, 80, a partner in life and farming, agrees there is no better place to raise a family. The DeBernardis have three children, nine grandchildren and one great grandchild with two more great grandchildren arriving in April. Bonnie said ranch life is hard work and long hours but everyone pitches in to get it done, strengthening family ties and uniting everyone with a sense of purpose. And pride.
“The ranch becomes part of your family life,” she said. “It takes passion to do this every day.”
Passion and a steely determination to succeed are what drives Don DeBernardi who has not only became one of the region’s top dairy farmers but an agriculture leader and strong voice for family farmers. He has served on the board of directors of Sonoma County Farm Bureau for more than 50 years and served two years as Farm Bureau president. He also was on the board of directors of Western United Dairymen for many years.
Farm Bureau, the county’s leading and most influential agricultural organization, is now honoring DeBernardi by inducting him into the Sonoma County Farm Bureau Hall of Fame in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments on so many levels. The prestigious award recognizes individuals who have made a real and lasting difference in advancing and preserving Sonoma County’s farming industry and rural way-of-life on the county’s more than 500,000 acres of farmland.
“Don DeBernardi’s passion for Sonoma County agriculture is evident in his multiple decades as a Sonoma County Farm Bureau board member. In his tenure, he has championed several critical issues that if gone unattended would have changed the landscape of our county as we know it today,” said Dayna Ghirardelli, executive director of Sonoma County Farm Bureau.
“Don is revered as a respected businessman, successful dairyman and a tremendous family man,” Ghirardelli added. “His induction into the Sonoma County Farm Bureau Hall of Fame is well deserved.”
DeBernardi will join other extraordinary agricultural leaders such as Marilyn and Kip Herzog, and the late Richard Kunde, Saralee McClelland Kunde, Gene Benedetti, Larry Bertolini, Louis Ricci and many more in the Farm Bureau Hall of Fame.
DeBernardi and other “Stewards of the Land” award recipients will be honored at Farm Bureau’s Love of the Land celebration on July 10 at Richard’s Grove and Saralee’s Vineyard, the Windsor estate created by Richard and Saralee Kunde that is now part of Jackson Family Wines. The event is open to anyone who wants to join in honoring DeBernardi and other farming stewards who have dedicated their lives to Sonoma County agriculture
Don and Bonnie DeBernardi have worked and sacrificed their entire lives to acquire their land and build their dairy business so it can continue with the next generation. They have adjusted to market and consumer trends while providing the best care possible for their cows and farmland.
The DeBernardi dairy business is definitely a family enterprise. The DeBernardis’ two daughters, Monique Moretti and Nicole Temple, are partners in the family business and are preparing to one day take the reins from their parents, ensuring that the DeBernardi dairy will continue as a family farm in Sonoma County.
Each has a specific role: Monique oversees the cow herd, responsible for health, nutrition and breeding; Nicole handles the bookkeeping and purchasing of the grain and hay. They hold daily meetings with their father in an office of the family’s farm house built in 1897.
Son Philip DeBernardi, the oldest of the DeBernardis’ three children, lives in Colorado with his three sons. While proud of his ranching roots in Petaluma, he has always been interested in history, earning a degree in the subject he loves.
Amanda Moretti Boggs, the daughter of Monique and Mike Moretti of Petaluma, said her grandparents shaped her life, instilling love of family and community and an Old-World work ethic. She said her grandfather is so deserving to be inducted into Farm Bureau’s Hall of Fame.
“My grandfather is the hardest working man I know,” said Boggs, who is the Underwriting Leader at American AgCredit in Santa Rosa. “He started with nothing and built his dairy business and along with my grandmother created a life on a ranch that has become a haven and way-of-life for all of our family. I am so lucky to be part of it all.”
Boggs, a graduate of Cornell University, has a 17-month-old son named Henry and is expecting twins in April. She wants her children to experience the farm life and values that her grandparents uphold every day on the ranch.
“I want to raise my family in the same manner,” said Boggs. “Through thick and thin, my grandparents created a way-of-life that truly values and cherishes family, togetherness, community, hard work, passion and the dairy cow.”
She said her grandfather, proud of his Swiss heritage, encourages family members to be strong and resilient like their European ancestors, always telling family members “Swiss are tough.”
“It’s a signature saying that he has embodied every single day of his life,” said Boggs.
Being Swiss tough has served DeBernardi well over the last 60 years as he maneuvered the ups and downs of the milk market, high feed costs, environmental regulations and labor challenges to thrive. He’s adapted to the changes and challenges, putting money away during good times to keep going during the inevitable downturns in the dairy business.
He’s invested in additional ranches with his milk profits, owning 1,200 acres of land and leasing another 800 acres. The land is used for grazing and for production of more than 7,000 tons of silage each year.
“You have to grow as much of your own feed as possible. I would have been out of business a long time ago if I didn’t grow a lot of my own feed,” said DeBernardi, one of the survivors in the dairy industry, which was the leading agricultural endeavor in Sonoma County before wine grapes took the top spot in 1987. There were once hundreds of dairies in Sonoma and Marin counties, now the numbers are in the dozens while continuing to decline.
DeBernardi is determined that he and his family will persevere, facing the challenges and doing whatever necessary to keep the land and a way-of-life that has defined his family.
“We don’t know where this dairy business is going but we know there will always be challenges and we must be ready to face them,” said DeBernardi.
