Buenos dias from Buenos Aires

Florida Street

Arriving in Buenos Aires this week has been a shock to the system.  It is now week 4 on the road and I was not prepared for Argentina at all.  So much time away has apparently caused me to be lazy in doing any research before arriving somewhere new but the element of surprise has it advantages.  I came across the Rio de Là Plata (the body of water that separates Uruguay and Argentina) by ferry and it was one of the most enjoyable ways to travel that I have done in awhile.  I could not believe the difference in the cities that are so geographically similiar.   Buenos Aires is noisy, crowded, grimy and beautiful all at the same time.There are little less than 3 million people in the city and the first time I left my hotel for a walk, it felt like half of them were on the same street that I was.  After being in Uruguay where the entire country has a population of 3.4 million, I wasn’t mentally prepared for this at all.  

Beef hanging in a local butcher shop

Beef certainly remains king here, it takes up at least 75% of retail space in all the grocery stores I have been in and proudly states that it is product of Argentina.  Argentina also claims to be the second largest consumers of beef in the world (I am still looking for a good source to confirm this). Beef is the headliner on every restaurant menu from burgers, steaks, pasta dishes and empanadas.  As part of the consumer research component of my Nuffield study, I feel that is my duty to try as many of these dishes as possible and nothing has disappointed yet.  Don’t even get me started on the desserts here….they are fantastic beyond anything I have had before and I am already thinking about how much I will miss them when I return home.

I am staying at a hotel in the Palermo Hollywood district of Buenos Aires.  It is quieter here than in the downtown district and there are many more trees around which makes me like this neighbourhood even more.  My attitude towards the city is softening somewhat. Palermo Hollywood is the so- called neighbourhood where people go to be seen and for gastronomic delights; it houses the city’s greatest concentration of bars and restaurants.  Even though I am here for but just a few days before heading out to the countryside, it is my quest to try as many of the restaurants and beef dishes as possible.  I am luckily back again next week for more while I visit the famed La Rural Show, held right here in Palermo district.  Where country comes to the city: Argentina style.

Casa Rosada; allegedly painted with cow's blood

South of Brazil...North of Argentina

   My time in Uruguay is quickly coming to an end.  I have enjoyed this leg of my trip very much.  Uruguay is a beautiful country which varied landscapes and stunning views and I say that while I am seeing it at its worst; it is the middle of winter and half of the country is in a state of emergency due to drought.  It seems as though this little country sandwiched between Brazil and Argentina is an overlooked diamond in the rough.

   Uruguay is a beef country, they are the second highest beef consumers int he world at 53 kg/person/year and export 75% of the beef they produce.  There is also a thriving dairy industry and byproducts like leather goods are abundant.  Their beef is fully traceable through an electronic database and their tags are provided to producers at no cost.  

Information has been tough to come by; apparently my lack of Spanish language skills and a wariness of foreigners in this developing nation meant that I was not able to meet with the industry groups that I had hoped to.  Even the Angus Association has not responded to my requests but that is part of the fun of doing a Nuffield study, if everything was easy than it wouldn’t be as exciting.  I did manage to catch up with one Angus producer who is Uruguayan and originally from the UK.  He was a wealth of information and I always appreciate the chance to look at some great Angus cattle.

   I also did something which is mostly likely a once in this world experience, I stumbled upon the Museo de la Revolución Industrial in Fray Bentos (left).  A museum dedicated to the production of beef bouillon and processed meats, yes that is correct a musuem dedicated to a meat processing company in an old kill plant.  

   Even though Uruguay was not at all what I was expecting it has been a fantastic week and I am a little sad to leave.  Perhaps I’ll be back soon, this does seem like an ideal place to invest in a little beach front property, I just need to start working on my Spanish.

Punta del Este

Plaza Independencia, Montevideo

Brazil Part 4 - Beef

Beef is a major factor in Brazil agriculture.  With 205 million head of cattle and a growing national herd, they are the second largest beef producing country in the world and have the second largest cattle herd in the world.  They have the capability to produce even more too; with their low cost of production, year round pasture and ample land resources combined with the research happening on native and African grass,  I don’t think we have seen all that Brazil can do just yet.

Brazilians are also meat eaters and keep about 80% of their production for the domestic market, that is a lot of beef and why I laughed when I saw the “Go Vegan” graffiti in the city of Brasilia.  I think whoever wrote that has a lot of work to do if they want to start that movement.  

Brazil has a national traceability system although it is very different than what I have previously seen.  Their system is not based around tags or super databases, they track only numbers and vaccinations done.  Once calves are vaccinated they are recorded in the national database and the sex and the number of head done are recorded.  This gets added to the farm’s inventory.  When animals are sold to another farm or to the processor, a manifest type paper is produced or created to show how many head of each sex is sold.  This information is entered by the receiver and those cattle are removed from the inventory.

The system is computerized and the updates are done in the state database and then uploaded to the federal system.  It seems to work quite efficiently and there are only really problems when animals are brought in of a certain age group that don’t match what the farm should have in inventory.  Farmers also have to sign a affidavit if they are selling to a plant that is exporting beef to ensure that certain protocols have been followed on the farm.  The industry and government know where all the cattle come from at any time and and have an excellent handle on the size and age of the national cow herd.

Grading Station

They also have a grading system in place but it doesn’t factor in quality.  There are three classes and the hot carcass weight taken minutes after harvest is all that is used to determine the grade.  Often producers will gather at the processing plant to watch their animals go across the scale to ensure that the plant is fairly recording the weights.  It is a very interesting system and the sheer size of it is hard to wrap my head around.  It may be a commodity product but I have seen some branded programs including product on the grocery shelf from the Brazil Angus Association’s own beef program.  The steakhouse I visited also was quick to point out an Angus product for me when they noticed by Canadian Angus Rancher Endorsed shirt.

Mark of an elite animal in the Nelore breed.

Brazil Part 3 - Cattle

I hate to admit it but I’ve never been a big fan of Bos Indicus type cattle.  I find them interesting to look at but rather unattractive.  Not that I have a lot of experience with eared cattle but I’ve run into a fair amount on my travels through Australia over the years.  My opinion has changed though since spending some time looking at the Nelore breed in Brazil these past few days.  These cattle are absolutely beautiful and any of you reading this who are not cattle people are probably laughing at me right now but it is true. Brazil is the largest breeder of Nelore cattle, and I had the opportunity to see both commercial and purebred operations.  

Crossbreeding Nelore with Angus is becoming very popular here and seeing results of it made it clear to me and to the people who are doing it.  It gives the beef producers here the best of hybrid vigour with an improvement in meat quality and heat and tick resistance of the breed.  The Angus animals have adapted to the heat here quite well and the breed is moving north through Brazil quickly.  I was told 50% of all semen sold in Brazil is now Angus.  

It is a completely pasture based system and tropical grasses are supplemented with ryegrass and/or oats during the winter months.  These tropical grasses in summer can produce 20% protein and are low maintenance aside from a little fertilizer requirements.  Corn and soybean meal is also used as a supplement but more often on dairy herds than beef.  Irrigation is also being used on beef pastures to improve the stocking rates on rotational grazing system pastures.  

Most cattle are finished on pasture but there are some feedlots around using corn, soybeans, orange pulp and even peanut meal to finish the cattle at a quicker rate.  Animals are sold by the @, which is equal to 15 kg and typically directly to the abattoir. 

A purebred Angus farm that we visited sells between 140 - 150 bulls each year and there is a waiting list for their animals.  They use American and Argentinian genetics to get the size of animal they desire, many of their bulls are also being collected for AI at a São Paulo collection facility.  They use 30 purebred cows and flush them extensively to get all the calves.  Hair can be a problem and when we arrived on the farm, our host was in the process of shaving a bull who had about 2 inches of hair on him. Short hair is an advantage here.

Brazil Part 2 - Coffee

The afternoon we spent looking at coffee plantations will become a Nuffield highlight for me.  Those of you who know me well, know that I am an avid coffee drinker but this was the first time I have been able to see how it is actually produced.  The videos and books I've seen, don’t do it justice.  The plants are a beautiful deep green and grow to be easily 3.5 metres high (12 feet).  The span out on the hillsides north of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo state like vineyards in Bourges, France.  The fruit becomes a deep red just before it is ready for harvest and it was harvest time while I was there.  

This particular plantation dries the coffee and bags it before selling.  The fruit is harvested by these machines that are massive and drive over the hedges of coffee plants, a hopper has to drive along the next row to collect the beans from the machine.  After the harvester goes through the field another machine goes along and sweeps the ground under the plants to pick up any missed fruit to minimize waste. 

The coffee is spread out on concrete terraces to dry for a few days until it is at about 20% moisture then moved to the wood furnace fuelled driers where it is taken down to 11 - 12%.  It is then sorted, skins are removed (to be used as organic matter back on the fields mixed with manure) and bagged to be sold to a distribution co-op.  

This plantation harvests only every two years and after harvest prunes all the plants back and lets them rest a year.  Typical coffee plants will produce a good crop one year only once every two years.  The opposite year is a much poorer result.  

Coffee was much bigger in this region years ago but sugarcane has replaced a lot of the production which seems like a shame but renting the land to sugarcane companies is much easier for an ageing farm population.  The similarity to vineyards surprised me and the smell coming from the coffee driers was something else; a sort of heaven for this coffee lover. 

Brazil Part 1 - Tropical Crops

Oranges, bananas, mangos, rubber trees and tropical grasses are all common in São Paulo state, Brazil.  The countryside is beautifully dotted with tropical fruits, palm trees, sugarcane and cattle.  It is a cornucopia of agriculture and a wonderful place to visit. It feels like a long way from home for me; highs in the summer of 45 ℃ and lows in the winter of 15 ℃ at night.  The land with help can easily produce three crops per year and some regions of south east Brazil will produce four.  It was quite the sight to see sugarcane harvesting being done and the new crop being planted right down the road.  The extensive variety and amount of fruit I’ve seen at the markets makes more sense to me now as so much can be produced within the state let alone the country.  

Collection of rubber

Rubber trees seemed almost familiar to me as the process is similar to maple syrup production in Canada.  The trees are cut, yearly and the rubber runs from the cuts to the waiting bucket hanging from the tree.  A tree can produce approximately 1 kg of rubber per year.  

A field of rubber trees

This vertically integrated orange producer was an interesting stop, they produce new orange trees in their greenhouses, grow oranges of various varieties, sell bagged fruit, juice and machinery to peel oranges which was invented at their farm.  On many occasions I had one of those “this is where my food comes from” moments.  I had never seen anything like some of these processes before.  Seeing how much is done by hand was also an eye opener.  

Harvesting oranges

Banana field

The bananas in Brazil taste so fresh, I became a little obsessed with them but they were so good.  Once I realized that they are grown right there down the road, it became clearer as to why they tasted so different than the ones in Canada.  These plants are about three years old and produce fruit year round.  Once a branch has produced a bunch of bananas, it is cut down and four will grow in its place, the best is kept to produce the next bunch.  

Corn and soybeans are also produced but sugarcane reigns king, not to mention it is great cattle country.  The landscape changes within kilometres of driving down the road and the rolling hills make for some spectacular views.  It is true agricultural land.

Brazil Introduction

I have decided that Brazil is just too big, too exciting and too interesting to sum it all up in one post.  So I am going to do this as a four part series plus this introduction.  I am still in Brazil as I write this and might stretch it into a five part series, so you can't say I didn't warn you.

I owe a big thank you to my host for the past few days, Pablo from Nuffield Brazil who showed me everything I wanted to see and so much more in São Paulo state, in and around the town of Auriflama.    It was great to have a translator, someone to navigate the dirt roads and someone to share Nuffield stories and experiences with.  Brazil truly is a remarkable country.  The landscape is stunning, the people are so friendly and the weather is awesome, not sure what else you could ask for.

Sugarcane field

The town sign at Auriflama.

At Pablo's farm; Nelore & Angus cattle.