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
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