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.

The Best Burger in the World.

It’s a headline that definitely catches my eye, especially when I see it in an ad for a São Paulo steakhouse/burger chain, Madero in the in-flight airline magazine (Travel geek alert: I love to read the magazines on the plane.  I quite often take them with me to remind myself of places to visit when I travel).  I could not pass up this opportunity to have the alleged best burger in the world, so I tracked down the restaurant today for lunch.  

I’ve seen a lot of places make this claim as I have been travelling around the past few years. I even saw a local chip truck call their burgers the best in the world in my hometown the other day and I’ve had some pretty fantastic burgers that haven’t made any such declarations but could certainly be in the running.

The restaurant was very busy even after 1 o’clock so they are obviously doing something right and the steaks coming out of the kitchen looked fantastic. I wish I had tried the burger and the steak but that seemed a little over the top, even in the name of Nuffield research.

The verdict?  It was an excellent burger, it would be right up there as one of the best burgers I’ve had….but the best in the world?  In my opinion, there would be some other contenders. So clever marketing ploy or legitimate claim?  I’m not sure.  But I do know it was a fantastic lunch and I’d go back there again and I suppose in the restaurant business, repeat customers are all that really matters.

Off-roading in a Fiat.

The car, a Fiat Uno

I wish that was an analogy for something…a decision that’s ok but not a very wise idea, something where you can easily wind up down a creek without a paddle or everything can turn out ok.  Sadly, in this case it is not a fun way to describe a bad idea; it is a true story.  Yesterday in rural Brazil near the capital of Brasilia I ended up accidentally off-roading in a Fiat that I had rented for the day.  The day started out innocently enough, I had rented a car to drive out to a town a few hours northwest of the city. To see some of the county side and get a feel for what grazing country looked like in the area.  Then I would make a loop heading slightly northeast of the city to see the Itiquira Falls before returning the rental car and ending up back at my hotel for the night. 

The road.

So off I went, feeling pretty confident after successfully navigating my way out of Brasilia (with the help of a GPS) and getting into rural Brazil.  This was after all the first time I’ve rented a car in a country where I don’t speak the language.  The landscape is stunning and my initial destination, the town of Pirenópolis was breathtaking.  Highways and paved roads the entire way made for an easy drive.  After lunch and some shopping in the unofficial silver capital of Brazil I set out for the falls.  Setting my GPS was a little more difficult this time but I managed to get it sorted out and headed off, this time however the GPS sent me out of town on a different road than I had come in on, I didn’t think too much about it as I was headed in a slightly different direction, that was until the pavement ended.  In situations like this that you should always listen to your instincts, this was one of those times and I choose to ignore it. I continued on, it was only 20 km down the road after all.  

The view from the top.

I headed up the side of a mountain and even passed a Dodge Journey at one point who was having trouble getting up a particularly soft section of steep road, I can proudly say my Fiat walked up without a problem.  The views from the top of the mountain certainly made it worthwhile.  But the road continued to deteriorate and I anxiously watched the kilometres slowly wind down as I approached the town and the highway again.   

Near the first river where I turned around, the town is the highway.

As I approached the town, I was relieved, 20 km of potholes and washouts were over.  I had seen pastures and cattle along the road so I was pretty happy in accomplishing that goal.  The road had a different idea though, it crossed a river that was about 30 feet across without a bridge, I unsuccessfully tried to find a different way across but the GPS continually pointed me back to the river crossing, I couldn’t see how deep it was and the slope on the other side didn’t seem doable…in a Fiat.  I did try and about 5 feet in, the water was eight inches deep, in a vehicle that was only a foot off the ground, I quickly got out of there.  I was only half a kilometre from town at that time but stuck.  So I headed in the opposite direction, my GPS finally found me a different route which was 30 km around the mountain in the opposite direction.  No problem as I didn't have any other choice.  So along I went, and I came across a small creek crossing, no problem for the Fiat…then another, which I also crossed.  Until I hit a third crossing which was larger that the initial one which had stopped me and I couldn’t actually see the exit on the other side.  I couldn’t do it, I was trapped in.  I turned around there really was only one option now.  I had to go back the way I had come and go the highway route, at least that way I knew I wouldn’t float away.  So I did, I went back along the pothole filled washed out route and had to head straight back to return the rental car as it would have been dark by the time I approached the city and it was too late to make my other stop.  It cost me about 2.5 hours of driving time along the dirt roads of Brazil but I got to see some stunning vistas and how many people do you know can say they took a Fiat off-roading?  The car held up exceptionally well and no comments about the thick layer of dust on the car upon my return.  And I learned another valuable travel lesson, when you are headed to a town where a selling feature is “paved roads the whole way there”  stay on the paved roads or perhaps more important always rent a large vehicle when traveling in Brazil.

The 2nd river crossing that turned me around.

I crossed this one!

The after shot, just a little dirt.

Hey, Ontario…I’m back!

I am embarking on another great adventure.  Being a Nuffield Scholar has a way of putting some crazy ideas in your head.  I have heard that people have gotten divorced after being named a scholar, others have completely changed their operation production model and/or sector of interest.  I, in contrast have decided to move back to Ontario from Calgary and take over the family farm along with my sister.  As of this past weekend I am once again living in the farm house where I grew up near Oakwood, Ontario.  It has been 12 years since I last lived here.

Blame it on Nuffield, blame it on a need for a change, blame it on a recent run of motivation speakers I have heard talk about following your dreams, or just blame it on the fact that primary production agriculture is the best job in the world.  There have been a number of factors that have lead to this decision.

There is no time better than now to be embarking on a career in agriculture.  Markets are strong, optimism is high and there are many people my age getting back into or taking a leading role in their own family operations.  Not to mention that the world is starting to take notice of Canadian agriculture like never before.  Initiatives like Farm Voices and #farm365 are inspiring and had me thinking over the past year about ways to get back to the farm.  I have been sitting behind a desk for almost nine years now and I was ready for a change.  Luckily, I have the support of a wonderful family, great friends and an understanding boss who is letting me keep my job and work remotely from Ontario.  The timing couldn’t have been better for me to seize this opportunity and embark on a this new adventure.  Am I scared?  Of course, but wise advice once told me to not let fear stand in my way.  

My Nuffield travels continue shortly when I head off to South America for a six week voyage through Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile.  Stay tuned as I explore agriculture on another continent and work toward finishing my Nuffield study and navigate these new waters.  In the words of Debbie Travis; Dream it. Do it. Live it!