January 10, 2014

January 10, 2014

Well, another day a different country in South America!  This morning we departed Argentina and made our way to Uruguay.  We traveled by ferry which took us roughly an      hour to reach Colonia.  It is also confirmed that Aaron still has a fear of water.

As usual, we got right off and took our first farm tour of Uruguay and the last of the trip!  We toured La Estanzuela, a research farm in Uruguay that is credited for being one of the most progressive operations in all of Uruguay.

The research farm is roughly 1200 hectares and was established in 1914.  Its a diversified farming operation that also does grazing trials on steers and on dairy cattle.  A majority of of there operation focuses on agronomy and crops however.

The agriculture of Uruguay as a whole is extremely progressive in nature.  Farmers are constantly looking for new and proven ideas to improve yield and profit on agriculture products.  It was very interesting to know however that the GMO soybean is actually what boosted there profit  margins in the agricultural field.

Additionally, they are top ten in the world in beef export, which considering there geographical area is extremely impressive.  Unlike Argentina, they are also much similar in terms of slaughter weight with the United States.

Honestly, Uruguay was night and day difference in agriculture to Argentina.  For one, they push very strongly for animal welfare, always trying to do better for the animal and there environment.  Secondly, and probably the most important is they have a government that strongly supports agriculture and is based around it.  Also, they are in better standing in terms of financial stability, partly to do with extremely low tax rates.

I personally feel they are a smaller scaled version of the United States.  Very similar in the way our government views agriculture and more progressive in how we operate.  Aside from  Uruguay being more diversified, I would definitely call them very similar.

We finished out a great day with an excellent meal at one of the local establishments and now get to prepare ourselves for a couple more nights!  Times winding down in South America!

Blake Eisenbeisz