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! :)