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
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