January 7, 2014

January 7, 2014

Well today was a very early start for us with having to leave the hotel by 7:45. We had two completely different stops and a long day ahead of us.

The first stop was with a co-op, the strongest in the La Pampa province, close to Santa Rosa. The co-op deals with both feedlot operations and crops. The co-op, which is around 60 years old, is composed of over 400 partners; 250 of those were regular partners, who were involved in the process of everything, and the rest were strictly just business partners who were more silent. The co-op has it's own type of elevator system which can hold around 40,000 tons of grain and fertilizer. The elevator was built around the railroad tracks that were used up until 2001. Near the elevator facility there is an auction area for the cattle. The co-op has 6 or 7 sales a year and takes a 3% from every sale whether it be a partners cattle being sold or a person not part of the co-op.

Along with visiting the co-op's elevator facility, we also got to visit one of the partnering farms. The farm was one that had been a partner for 13 years, however it has been running for almost 100 years. The farm had a feedlot and crops that are used for the consumption of the cattle. This feedlot has been different from others we have seen on the trip in the way it is used only 90 days out of the year in the winter. The feedlot, when full, can hold up to 1500 head of cattle. Since it is summer in Argentina, the cattle are currently grazing alfalfa fields. This operation uses an alfalfa crop 3-5 years for grazing before discing and replanting. They have 4 different lots that they rotate between leaving the cattle on for approximately 10 days on each lot so they can return to the original one every thirty days. The co-op uses its cattle for domestic consumption and exports. They export approximately 300 head at 520 kilos only to Europe. Because of the government restrictions on exportation it is very hard because they have to meet a certain quota for domestic consumption before being able to export any. In Argentina, bigger cattle are worth less than small animals, so the co-op sorts through the finished cattle and send the small ones for domestic consumption, but keep the larger ones to finish (around 22 months) for export. Where this farm is located, almost 85% of the soil is sand, but as hills get taller it is closer to 100%. Right now there is a drought and the area is suffering about 9 inches of water difference from 2013. They cannot irrigate because the ground water is to salty and to deep. Even if they were able to irrigate, there would not be enough water anyways. Like most farms in Argentina, the co-op contracts out all of its harvesting.

Our visit with the co-op ended with lunch at a small cafe. There some of us were introduced to some very interesting food including small intestine and kidney. That was my first time trying either and to say the least I pry will not ever do it again, but I'm glad I did anyways.

The second stop of the day was really unique because the farm was owned by an Alabama American rancher, Wat Johnson. He got into the Argentina land ownership around 10 years ago with a place to the left of his current farm, Flor de Lis. He sold the first and helped the owners of Flor de Lis at the time get out of a bad financial situation and then purchased the property. Flor de Lis is a yearlings production and cow-calf operation included in the partnership of "La Tregua S.A." which is a member of CREA. The farm is 4431 hectares large and looked more like it should be in the Savannah Desert with giraffes according to Ty. Flor de Lis does not feed there cows alfalfa and grain like other farms we have been to. The managers of the farm believe that natural grasses and a few other imported grasses are the best way to feed cows and calves until maturity to clave or slaughter. They are currently working on planting grasses that will last many decades,  are good sources of nutrients for the cows and calves, easy to maintain, and relatively inexpensive. If their grasses are not enough to finish out the calves they produce enough crops to make silage. This partnership was by far the most interesting in the fact that they did not believe in doing a lot of extra things to finish out their cows and calves. They are trying to show the Argentina government and the world that success can be reached with simple techniques.

Our farm and day ended with us joining Mr. Johnston and his workers at his place for some fresh butchered pig and talking about all kinds of things. A few of us were able to ride horse, some for the first time, and just relax for awhile also. We compared the U.S. to Argentina, talked about bull sales, and just enjoyed being able to speak to someone who farms in Argentina without much needing to be interpreted.

Well I hope that wasn't to long explanation of our days activities, but as you all know I've never been short of words. Stay warm and safe! See you all soon :)

Sincerely My Friends and Family,
Kasey Aasby