Day 15 - January 12, 2013

It is another very warm day down here in Buenos Aries as our trip is coming to a close. It was a very interesting morning that began with a bus tour of the city. Our tour guide Andrea came aboard the bus and were off to learn more about this huge city we have called home for the last few days. The first thing she noted is that we have been staying on 9th of July Avenue which is named after the date of Argentina's independence. It is one of the widest avenues in the world with ~16 lanes (give or take a few for the way people drive) that spans 140 meters (558 ft)! It is a fast moving street and you have to watch your step. One of the symbols of Buenos Aries is the Obelisk which stands in the middle of the avenue creating square similar to Time Square in New York. Of course the most important site off this square is the McDonald's that most of us found for lunch!

During the tour we were able to a make several stops. The first was to one the oldest cathedrals in Argentina. It is located next to the main government building and is truly a beautiful structure.

The next stop we made is to the market established in the 1800s. It was the traditional location for purchasing food items. Now there are also antique stores as well as produce and meat shops. We were a little disturbed to see brains in the display case!

Then we were off to get some of our last souvenirs at one of the original immigrant market places.

Finally, our last stop was at a very large cemetery that houses some of the richest families in Argentina. This cemetery is different than anything you have ever seen. Families build small structures that look like monuments, but are really the doorways to storage units that are housed under the ground. Here they can place caskets or urns with members of the family. The monuments are truly spectacular in detail and design. One of the coolest things was seeing a halo rainbow as we left the cemetery, none of us had every seen one below.

Now we are hanging out now waiting for our ride to the airport. We will be in touch to let you know how the flights go through Facebook. Wish us well on our travels, and we look forward to seeing U.S. soil soon.

-Stacy M Scramlin  

Day 14 - January 11, 2013

Well today was our free day in Colonia, Uruguay. We split up and went our own ways this morning. About half of us went to the beach while the other half went shopping in all of the different stores Colonia had to offer. Some of those who went shopping also toured several different museums as well as a very popular tourist attraction that was an old light house on the coast of Uruguay. To get all of us students from point A to B, Julie and Stacy had two side by sides rented for our traveling convenience.

           A group of about seven students went to see the tourist sites located in    Colonia. The main attraction was a lighthouse that was built in 1857 and is now a historical monument. This lighthouse was called the Faro de Colonia. Another cool tourist attraction seen by the group was the skeleton of a blue whale. It was crazy to see just how enormous blue whales are. Attractions ranged from huge museums and monuments to fancy tables to make the whole experience worthwhile. Uruguay has many various tourist attractions that would make it an enjoyable country to come back to and explore all the sites.

For those who went to the beach they found the water to be quite refreshing as well as a wonderful spot to work on their tans they were wanting to take back to a South Dakota winter in Brookings. After a few hours of fun in the sun the group decided to take   refuge in a cafe just off of the beach. The atmosphere was really enjoyable as the students had a leisurely lunch just off of the water. It truly was a little piece of paradise!  

As for those who went shopping they found the many places that Colonia had to offer a wonderful spot to purchase souvenirs as well as gifts for those they left behind in the states. This was followed by a quick ferry ride back across to Buenos Aires, and our last group supper in Argentina. It has certainly been an experience of a life time for us and one we'll not soon forget.  This has been Zeb Husted and David Little signing off here in beautiful Buenos Aires.

Day 13 - January 10, 2013

Que Pasa? (Whats happening)

Today we left Buenos Aires to travel to Uruguay. We traveled by ferry to Uruguay, which took roughly an hour. Upon arrival, we exchanged our money to their form of Pesos, which exchanged to 19 Pesos for 1 U.S. dollar.

After what seemed like hours of waiting for and using the ONLY ATM at the ferry port.  We were off to our last tour of the trip at the local agriculture research center, which was a bit like our Checkoff and USDA systems.  The national research facility has five research stations across  the nation.  The research station that we visited started in 1914 and covers around 1300 Ha (around 3,211 ac).  At this research station they raise beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, crops, and pasture-land.  They also have five main research lab including a soils and water lab, animal nutrition, grain quality, milk quality, and a seed quality lab.  This particular research station employs around 190 staff.  The focus of the research at these stations are partially decided by local farmers and ranchers input.

The first of the units we visited was the Dairy research center which has around 300 head.  The main areas of research currently include dry matter intake and heat stress.

The next unit was the sheep unit (a personal favorite of Betsy's and Dr. Scramlin's).  They run around 2,000 head of white face commercial ewes on around 200 Ha.  They are currently in the process of crossbreeding their herd to more of a meat oriented breed to fit the countries ever changing needs, as they export around 80% of their meat products.

Following visiting the ewes we stopped to visit the oldest pasture plot research trial in South America and the 2nd oldest in the world.  This trial covered 11 Ha and half of which were fertilized and the other half were not.

Our final stop at the research station was their cattle research station, where they are currently working on a feedlot vs pasture trial with focusing on their weaning weight.

After finishing our final stop of the trip we loaded up and headed back to Colonia where we are spending the night.  After checking into the hotel a portion of us decided to go swimming while another portion of us decided to embrace the culture and take a siesta.

To cap off the evening we ate at a local restaurant as some of the group decided to expand their cultural awareness and try some new things including some goat and fried squid.

We hope all of our friends back at SDSU are having a wonderful time with the start of a new semester and classes.

Andrea Diehn and Betsy Krohmer

Day 12 - January 9, 2013

Today we visited Linier's Market, which is the largest cattle market in the world. The market itself cover over 34 hectares which is equivalent to about 88 acres! Over 10,000 cattle are brought here each day from all over Argentina to be auctioned off for slaughter. Auctions are held Monday through Thursday of every week. The cattle arrive the night before the sale and are weighed and put into pens. There are 2,200 pens on the sight.

At Linier's Market, the buyers are brought to the cattle. Auctions begin at 7:30am and are finished and by 2:00pm all the cattle are gone. The buyers and auctioneer walk the cat walks above the pens yelling out their bids. The prices paid per kilogram here set the price for the entire country. Today the average price per kilogram was $10.50 pesos. After a pen is sold it is weighed again to obtain a final weight. The buyers pay based on this final weight. Immediately after being weighed the cattle are loaded up and taken to the slaughter plant.

The highlight of this tour was seeing a group of fellow Americans wearing FFA official dress. It turns out they were a group of state officers one of which was from Minnesota and attends SDSU!

Our next tour was of Raciones Argentinas. This company makes customized premixes for dairy cattle and beef cattle diets. They currently have 150 clients whose needs range anywhere from 200kg to 30 tons of premix per order. When an order is placed it takes about 3 to 4 days for the farmer to receive their order. Since Raciones Argentinas does not own any trucks, either the farmer must pick up their own order or a driver is hired to deliver it. The owner, Graciela Fazzio, is one tough woman because it is very rare for a woman to be a CEO of a company in Argentina. She takes great pride in her company and strives to provide quality, customized goods to her clients. We also enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Grace's home this afternoon.

This evening we went out to a nice restaurant as a group. Among the many meals ordered include squid, a suckling pig and rabbit casserole. After supper we had to say goodbye to Alejandro and Antonio. We really enjoyed spending time with them on this trip and we will miss them greatly!

Kaitlin Hartkopf & Larrisa Neugebauer

Day 11 - January 8, 2013

We woke up at 8 am this morning in the city of Pergamino, Argentina. The morning was particularly cool and overcast. The temperature was in the low 60s fahrenheit, and the cloud cover and humidity kept the grass beneath our feet wet well into the day. The pleasant temperature and clouds would not last, giving way to sweltering heat and sunshine by the day's end in Buenos Aires.
The first stop on this day was a seed company in the outskirts of the city. Pergamino is the capital of seed production in Argentina with nearly eighty percent of all Argentinian seed produced near the city. This is mostly due to the favorable soils found here. They are among the best in the country. The company we visited is called GAPP which stands for Genetic Applied Production Pastures. The company is thirteen years old and based in Pergamino. They specialize in producing seed for forage and grazing crops, most notably alfalfa, ryegrass and sorghum.

We began the tour in one of the company's test plots. In addition to the plot we saw here, they also have one near Salta, a small city in one of the northernmost regions of the country for testing plants more fit for the cattle producers of the tropical and subtropical environments found there. The test site in Pergamino, however, dealt more with temperate plants more well suited to the central region. One of the most important of these plants is alfalfa. The alfalfa used in Argentina comes from one of three main sources, Australia, The United States, and Argentina itself. We were shown two plots planted in 2011 and 2009, respectively. Our tour guide Mariano pointed out each variety, commenting on its country of origin and performance. In nearly every trial, the American varieties outperformed the Australian and Argentinian ones in uniformity, nutrition, and overall yield. Much of this was attributed to the fact that the American genetics did a better job controlling root disease and insects, leading to better alfalfa stands.
Mariano also pointed out the company's tests on continental and mediterranean fescue. Unlike alfalfa which grows continually, fescues go dormant at certain times of the year, continental varieties in the winter months (June, July and August) and mediterranean varieties in the summer (December, January and February).
Furthermore, since machinery specifically designed for planting or seeding pastures is not available in Argentina, trials are being held to find the best methods to adapt existing equipment to the task. Thus far they have had the best results from planting twice in a criss-crossing grid, rather than twice in parallel rows.
Afterwards we toured their seed handling facilities where seeds are cleaned, sorted, packaged, stored and distributed all across southern South America. While there, we were treated to coffee and croissants in traditional Argentine hospitality.
Continuing onward, we left Pergamino and ventured eastward toward the city of Buenos Aires. The city is massive. It is the largest in Argentina and one of the largest on the continent. For a bunch of farm kids from the upper Midwest, it is somewhat overwhelming.  Our hotel is located deep in the center of the city, not far from the Obelisk and the Argentine version of the White House, which is pink. It is on the widest street I have ever seen, a twelve-lane boulevard with service roads on either side and stretches of park in between. The buildings that flank the boulevard are at least a few hundred yards apart.

In the evening, we attended a tango show at a restaurant-theater not far from the hotel. For those that don't know, tango is a style of dance that originates from Argentina. The simplest way to describe it is a fluid and sporadic, if not systematic, embrace that plays out across the dance floor (or in this case stage) to down-right melancholy music played by a combination of a piano, string bass, accordion and violin. We were first served a meal in what is probably the classiest, most sophisticated restaurant of the whole trip thus far. Afterwards, the show presented a brief history of the dance; rising from the slums and working-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, being accepted by Argentinian society, and finally becoming part of Argentina's portion of our collective world heritage. Argentinian's are proud of tango in a way that we as Americans simply don't feel towards any particular style of dance. For them it is a part of their national identity, and I'm here to say that as a nation, they could do worse.

Daniel Gering

Day 10 - January 7, 2013

Today we left Hotel Rosario in Rosario, Argentina at 7:45am for a tour of The Vicentin Soybean Processing Plant and The Port of Rosario at 9:00am. The tour lasted about an hour and a half to two hours. Now for those of you that know about or have waited in line to dump at a major elevator/bio-fuel plant think they have it bad waiting in line for two or more hours is nothing compared to the truck drivers here in Argentina. The truck drivers first have to drive very far distances on very low maintenance roads "dirt" and bumpy paved roads. Once they have reached their destination of the plant they have to take a sample of the soybeans to be quality tested. If the soybeans meet the requirements of the quality, the truck driver is given an identification card and then the trucker has to transport the soybeans to a second plant. If the soybeans do not meet the quality standards, they are not transported to the next plant and stay at the first plant. If the soybeans are transported to the second plant the truck driver can wait up to a week or several days before getting to dump. Once the truck driver has waited in line and is inside the plant he must present the identification card from the first plant at each station in the second plant. The trucks are pulled on a platform that raises the whole truck into the air dumping the soybeans onto the platform and causing them to slide into the pit. After the truck is empty it is lowered and allowed to leave the plant. This plant particularly gets 85% of its soybeans delivered by truck and unloads 700 to a 1,000 trucks a day. The rest of the soybeans come by rail and boat, but are a very small percentage. The plant runs 24 hours seven days a week or 365 days an is only shut down once or twice in a year for maintenance. There are seven steps of getting soybean oil out of a raw soybean. The person that was taking us through the plant and showing us the process of getting a pure product explained every step and machine used. While inside the plant they did not allow us take pictures for company purposes and for safety.

Next we toured the port, which is also found at the plant. The port receives three to four barges a day and 270 ships in a year. Customs inspects the raw soybean, soybean oil, soybean pellet, soybean meal, or bio-diesel before they can load or unload.  The depth of river is checked daily to make sure no barge or ship runs aground and to determine how much weight they can load. It was very neat to see the river and port, because they were currently loading a cargo ship that was headed to Holland and unloading a barge into the plant. They also let us walk out onto the catwalk over the river and barge that lead to the ship. We were not able to go on the ship because it was not owned by the plant. The barge is unloaded with a six metric ton scoop (220 bushels) and Bobcat that was lowered into the barge by crane.

Our next stop was about an hour an a half away. We stopped to fuel up and have lunch at a gas station, because we were ahead of schedule. At the gas station we awaited the return of Alejandro and his son Antonio AKA "Skippy". Once we met them at the gas station we proceeded down a short road to Conecar Feedlot. Conecar feeds 10,000 head of cattle. Conecar does not retain ownership of the cattle, but rather do custom feeding for cow/calf producers. Conecar also has its own feed company. They feed the cattle twice a day, once at 6:30am to 10:00am and another at 3:00pm to 6:30pm with a corrective period the next morning from 9:00am to 10:30am. Their feed ration is a TMR of corn, soybean pellet, wheat pellet, premix, peanut hulls, and alfalfa hay. All their feedstuffs are purchased except for the alfalfa hay. 100,000 Kg (220,000 lbs) of feed is  delivered daily. Calves are received at 180-200Kg (396lbs to 440lbs) and are finished 320-340Kg (704lbs to 748lbs). When cattle are ready for market they load 50 head a truck with 17-20 in the front and all the rest on the back. Their feed to gain ratio was 6Kg:1Kg (13.2lbs to 2.2lbs) which is quite bad. Cattle are on feed for 100 days. Death loss is 0.3% per month. Most deaths are caused from respiratory disease and digestive problems. When calves are received they are put in a pen together and monitored for two days and less if calves are coming from close by. After being monitored calves are vaccinated and treated for parasites. After 21 days they are revaccinated. Pens hold 120 head with 25 square meters of space per head and 40cm of bunk space per head. Cattle are 80% British and the rest are Holstein and some sort of cross with Bos Indicus.
Overall today was a well put together day and very informative. Today was also kind of a mix up of something new to see. We look forward to learning new things the rest of the trip and cannot wait to return home.

Cameron Pewe and Chris Opdahl

Day 9 - January 6, 2013

Today was a free day to roam around Rosario. As it is Sunday, most of the shops and attractions are closed so that leaves time for outside activities. Some students went on a long journey to find a beach. After a long walk and no sunscreen they also found some pretty good sunburns as well...aloe anyone? But they said it was worth it to be able to see more of the town. Others went to find a local park, it didn't take very long because it wasn't very big, but at least they said it was pretty.

In the evening half of the group went to a great restaurant recommended by some of the locals, it is called McDonalds. Because this is the first tourist-type town, it was the first American eatery we have found so needless to say several people jumped at the chance.

Rosario is a large city that was clearly built in the 1800s. Even though several of the buildings have modern shops on the first floor, the second and third floors have beautiful detail and architecture.

Tomorrow will be a very busy day, are visiting the shipping port, a machinery manufacturer, and also a large research feedlot, then we will move onto the next town. As always we will keep you updated.

-Stacy Scramlin

Day 8 - January 5, 2013

Hola Amigos!!!!

     This is Trish and Kelsey reporting live from Argentina!!! Got to an early start this Saturday morning, loaded the bus at 7:45 and headed for our first farm visit. It was cloudy when we left Trenque Lauquen but an hour later when we arrive at "El Silbibo" the sun was shining. The feedlot manager Jaime Lyford Pike greeted us. This feedlot is owned by an elderly woman who lives in France but will come to Argentina a few months out of the year. The whole operation is 60,000 hectares where they grow 500 hectares of corn, 2,000 hectares of soybeans, and 500 hectares of barley. The barley is harvested and 300 hectares goes towards their feedlot operation. They also have 6,000 cows along with tree and rice projects. This company has a total of 60 employees but only 6 work at this location.

     For their feedlot operation, they raise their own calves and put them into the feedlot after they are weaned at 80kg. Some of those cattle are finished by grazing on alfalfa from October to March while the rest of the cattle are finished in the feedlot. They have a rotational grazing system and the cattle out on alfalfa and are moved every day. To prevent bloat they administer a bloat guard which is put into the water. They have three different finishing weights that they go by. Females are finished to 330 kg and the males are finished at either 350 or 410. The finishing weight depends on the year and prices also, some heifers are kept as replacements. There are 4,000 cattle on site today and consume a finishing ration of barley, wheat middlings, sunflower pellets, and urea. They feed the cattle twice a day and the operation's goal is for them to gain 1 kg/day to reach a market weight around 330 kg by February.

     We loaded back up. on the bus and Miguel took us to our next farm visit. The name of this farm is "La Pastora" and Martin Galligo welcomed us. This a family company consisting of a father and his two sons. They own 760 hectares with their main crops being corn and soybeans along with barley, sorghum, and sunflower. They had 250 head in the lots today and will circulate 900 head per year and finish at a weight of 300-330 kg. The cattle market price now is 11 pesos/kg. Of the cattle in the lots, 30% of the calves are home raised while the rest they bought. The 280 head of cows are kept on 700 hectares of pasture that they rent. They AI their cows this year and the semen was from the United States.

     We stopped at a very busy bus stop for lunch and got back on the bus to log another 4 hours as we head for Rosario.

Just another great, warm day in Argentina! This is Trish Ollerich and Kelsey Begalka signing out! :)