Morning Tea in Brazil!!

We had a sumptious smoko at a family dairy farm.  The oven that cooked these treats is based on the traditional outdoors oven that many rural people have.  This cheese bread was delicious, and of course, all washed down with good old coke!

I took a heap of photos so that my darling husband could build me one just like it.  Its made out of bricks and mud, with the oven bit, being plate steel.

The wood goes in the bottom at the back, with a chimney letting the smoke bypass the oven.  Simple and effective.  Have been contemplating building a pizza oven for a few years, but like this idea better, has many more uses than for just pizzas.  I am sure that we have enough old bricks and things lying around to build it…..just need an enthusiastic husband now…..oh, and probably need to deliver the baby before carting bricks etc to build it!!!   Be nice to have it installed before winter though…can keep warm around the oven while cooking.

Farms in Central Brazil

This little farm was amazing.  Covering 11 hectares in total, it supported an extended family of 3 generations, of which five family members worked full time on the farm.  The were open enough to share their farm figures with us and we were astounded to see that they had made a net profit of $50 000Us the previous year, after paying wages etc to all family members.  They were a diverse operation, small dairy with irrigated pastures, and coffee,  and other small crops.  Their main income was from the 30 cow dairy.  They are part of a scheme, fully subsidized by the Brazilian government where agronomists and agri-businesss consultants come in and assess your business and recommend changes that will lift productivity and performance.  They are benchmarked against similar farms and the program is similar to what some of the private ag consultants offer in Australia.  Imagine the Australian government fully subsidizing the ag sector to lift their performance and promote best practise across all regions like they do in Brazil….there is such good support for the family farmers…we could learn a lot from what they are achieving in Brazil.

This is a typical view of farming land in central Brazil.  Average rainfall being between 1.5 to 2 metres per annum, topped up with irrigation.  There is 2.1 million hectares not being utilized or underutilized in Brazil.  I don’t know why people are worried about not being able to feed the world’s population in 2050, Brazil could do it by themselves.  They are fast catching us in the realms of farm technology, uptake of new practises at the farm level and gains in crop yields and efficiencies.  What has probably taken Australian Farmers 30 or 40 years to adapt to, the Brazilians will have caught up and most likley be outperforming us in the next 5 years.  It was incredible how much they knew about Australian Agriculture, in particular, our markets, crop yields, rainfall averages etc……much more than what the average Aussie farmer knows about Brazil…they seem to make the point of knowing what their competitors are doing.

A sample of the citrus pith from the massive orange juice industry in Brazil.  The Orange peel is processed and pelletorized and fed to dairy cows with great success.  The bins full of these pellets smelt so good, you could eat it!!!

The small farmers in Brazil were very interested in why we Aussies had such big farms in comparison to them.  We explained the relevance of scale and need to remain viable.  They were astounded to learn that Ray Vella and myself had beef cattle running on native pastures that weren’t irrigated or improved.  This seemed inconceivable to them.  They couldn’t understand why we weren’t irrigating our pastures!!!  When we explained the rainfall and how cattle actually do well on our pastures, with very little parasite problems, I am sure they didn’t believe us!!!

We discussed their ideas on succession planning.  They are not worried about the next generations of kids coming through and they reckon that they can provide for them by improving the land they already have, as opposed to acquiring more land to support extra family members.  They thought our ideas of expanding our holdings quite different and questioned why we would do such a thing…our explanation of scale had them astonished to think that we needed so much land to support a family operation.  I explained that we are already planning for our son who was 2 years old (and my un-borne child already)…this caused much talk and conjecture.  I guess our culture is much more adept at long term planning then some cultures….I wonder if this is due in part, to successive Brazilian dictator governments who have, until recently held little value on long term planning and political stability.

A day off in Mexico City….our first full day off!!

We went on a quick whirl wind tour of Mexico City in the morning and spent the afternoon at the Museum of Anthropology looking at Mayan and other indigineous artifacts.  This church was built in 2 stages, with the original bit on the right, which is about 100 years older then the bit on the right.  The conquistadors built it when they invaded Mexico.  It reminded me of the churches throughout Europe and was quite beautiful inside.

These beautiful tiles were made in the 1700′s and still cover the outside of a beautiful old building in the Old city area within the central part of Mexico City, I wonder how many tiles that are manufactured today will still be around in 300 years time, as these are.  The colours haven’t even faded!!

This stained glass ceiling on one of the churches we visited was extrodinary.  You can’t tell from this photo, but where this church is located, and most of central Mexico city is sinking.  The floors in this particular church are at least 6 to 8 inches out of level, so when you walk down the aisles, there is a noticeable difference, like you are walking with a limp!!!  Not sure how this ceiling is actually still in place, considering that every floor and wall surface is out of alignment and not plumb.

The Mexicans love protesting, very similar to what we experienced when Glenn and I travelled to South America in 2004.  This demonstration was about electricity supply and the workers were protesting.  They all had white shirts on and were occupying the main Mexico City square, by the time we left the central area, there would have been 1000 protesters assembled.  It was a quiet rally, with a large police presence.

We visited a large park in the city with a significant water fountain as the central feature…I guess homage to the lack of water as a natural resource in Mexico.  I was more interested in the Gums tress scattered throughout the park and the familiar smell of gum trees that reminded me of home.  Apparently, the Australian government donated these to the Mexican government in the 1970′s and now the trees are well established and thriving throughout the park.

The museum was as expected, full of artifacts and indeed, facts on the artifacts!!!  Like all indigineous cultures, the Mayans suffered at the hands of the Spanish, but much of their history is preserved and well documented….very different to our aboriginal culture, which the written language or pictures are few and far between.  Great reams of information on the culture, people and how they lived were everywhere in the museum….it would have taken days to see it properly.  Of course we ran out of time and had to head back to the hotel, to shower and get to the airport to catch our international flight to Brazil via Santiago Chile, which was an all-nighter.  We left the Hotel at around 5.00pm for the airport and spent the entire night and all the next day in transit finally makiing it to Ribero Preto in Central Brazil and into bed at around 11.00pm the next night….we were all a bit shattered.

Farm Visits in Obregon, Mexico

Our GFP group standing on top of the massive grain handling and storage facility in Obregon, Northern Mexico.  Got a good view of the surrounding country side.  I loved mexico, the food was fantastic and we had fun the night before this picture was taken trying to order our meal in a restaruant where nobody spoke English and my spanish vocabulary doesn’t include much on Mexican food.  We managed to have a fantastic meal anyway and were glad to walk back to the motel, so we could digest the huge feed that they dished up for us, I think we had about 8 different dishes for main course and it worked out at about 8 dollars per head!!!  Great value.

Looking a bit weary, but enjoying the view, in the background is the fertile plains growing so much of Mexico’s food.  The area behind me is the southern side of the train tracks and the poorer part of town, no different to many poor parts of cities world wide….shanties and ramshackle buildings etc.

We spent the rest of the day touring local Mexican farms, including this one which had the biggest Parkinsonia Tree I have ever seen.  This tree is a pest in Australia and is actively poisoned and controlled.   This specimen has obviously been nurtured for many years!!!  We have camels on Granville to knock over and eat the trees and the seed pods…camels are the only ruminant with stomach acid strong enough to kill the seeds, hence that is why we have them…I reckon our weed controller camels at home would have trouble knocking this baby over to get to the leaves and seed pods!!!

Hector, one of our hosts was kind enough to show us around his family’s citrus farm.  There is a serious electrified security fence around the perimetre and when we questioned why, apparently, thieves can come in at night and totally wipe out their entire crop and sell the oranges in the cities.  Would hate to think what it would cost to erect security fencing around plantations in Australia like this.  They also have security guards on duty at night as an extra deterant.

Picking an orange for smoko from Hector’s orange trees, was nice to have fresh fruit.  Reminded me of home and our mandarins and oranges.  I had 3 oranges, beautiful and sweet.  Baby belly growing now…a boost of vitamin C for the baby!!!

A bit hard to see, but this is a new almond plantation that Hector’s family has planted.  Mexican farmers also recognize the importance of growing the highest value crops on their land.  Farms converting citrus and other arable crops to Almonds were evident everywhere….similar to California.  Apparently, there is chronic undersupply of almonds worldwide…this can be put down to Asian countries now using more almonds in cooking and a general increase in almonds in the Asian diet.

The rules in Mexico with Agriculture, are that there can only be 100 hectares per person.  So farms are deliberatley kept small and this in turn, allows viability of small producers.  To expand farming operations, if families wish to increase their holdings, they have to purchase more land in another family members name….generally, the wife or children.  This would in turn, ensure that the younger generations have a responsibilty to come back to the farms after they are educated….very different to Australia, where there is no obligation at all.   Corporate agriculture in Mexico is not common, this has ensured robust diversity and representation of agriculture in the political arena.  Most owners of land don’t live on the farms, they live on the local towns and travel to their farms every day.  Their workers live on the farms and do most of the day to day management.  Multi generational workers are a common occurance, where there are 2 or 3 generations working for the same landowner.

As in California, there are high levels of workers, as the wages are so cheap.  The owners of the land seem to have a good differentiation from working IN the business and opposed to working ON the business, the land owners focus is primarily on strategic decision making and things like repairs and maintainance are the responsibilty of the employees….we could learn a thing or to from that here in Oz!!!

 

Source of the Yacqui Valley water supply in Mexico.

One of the water storage facilities that supplies the irrigation district where the CYMMYT facility is located, a big dam, but not quite as big as Fairbarn Dam at Emerald though.  It is also used as a recreational facility with the obligatory utes with boat trailors parked with people out water skiing for the day…some things are universal really!!  This water is from one of the very few rivers in Mexico that originates in California and Mexico.  They do have some issues with water rights and having to share with states of the US, but nothing like the interstate competition encountered by players in the Murray River Problems in Australia.

The dimensions of the dam if anyone is interested!  Can interpret the English equivalents of the spanish words pretty easily.

Can tell by the ground cover, this is pretty low rainfall country hey?…Hard to believe that just an hour down the road, there are fertile plains that grow so much of the food for Mexicans!  Can see the dam wall in front of the mountains.

We visited the monitoring and management facility for the Yacqui Valley.  Every pumping station is remotely monitored by one person sitting at a desk. The use of telemetry is essential for the smooth running of the irrigation system…I am pretty sure, that the technology is Australian.  Each pumping station is remotely monitored and has sensors and cameras constantly keeping watch.  The host of the facility told us that using remote monitoring has saved them around $2.1 million US per year on damage, theft and R&M expenses for the system.  I guess the local thieves don’t like being caught on camera.  All the pumping stations start and stop by remote control from the main facility be one person.

One of the aquiducts that runs for a couple of hundred kilometres providing water for the Yacqui Valley to sustain food production for Mexico.

A sculptural interpretation of the Yacqui Valley warrior spirit/talisman who protects the Yacqui Valley.  He is located on the main highway into Obregon, Northern Mexico.

 

California to Mexico…time to brush up on my Spanish!

We spent a day in transit, with one international flight and 2 internal mexican flights to get to Obregon.  We flew all the way south to Mexico city and then nearly back to the Californian border with the internal flights to get to the where the worlds leading wheat and grain research facilities are.  I think it would have been quicker to drive, as we were in southern California anyway!

Look how tall these wheat varieties are.  This is a Mexican feed wheat variety that has a dual purpose.  Soft wheat is used for stock feed and the stubble is used for fodder in Mexican dairy herds.  It seemed strange to be standing in a wheat field that is up over your hips.  Australian wheat is barely above your knees.

 

The CYMMYT Research Facility in Obregon Mexico is a world leader in grains research.  It is truly an international collaboration with various countries funding the research programs.  Australia’s Grains Research Development Corp funds help to keep the facility operating.  The land was donated by Mexican Farmers, as they realized the importance of R&D for their food security future.

The research facility was named after an american agronomist who was sent to Mexico to study wheat rust diseases and liked it so much that he stayed…he was  the original pioneer to re-establish low till farming practises and instigated the transition from multiple soil tillages pre-planting crops, back to zero-till/direct drill and low traffic practises that are now adopted widely across Australia.  Of course, ancient cultures have survived for thousands of years with these practises, but to re-establish these princeples would have taken a lot of guts in the past few decades when industrial agriculture experts and their philosopies held so much sway.

The good old Aussie flag and all the other international flags that have connections and financial interests in this research facility are proudly displayed on the road into the facility.

Looking at this view of the beautiful fields of wheat, it is hard to believe that this is actually 8 inch rainfall country….the irrigation systems in Mexico are excellent…I guess a tribute to past government’s foresight and obligation to ensure food security for their people.  Imagine if the 8 inch rainfall zones in Australia could benefit from irrigations schemes similar to Mexico and California that we visited…..the opportunites are endless!!

 

This particular plot is looking at the effects of organic matter on the soil post harvest, so for the past 25 years,  they have been trialling different levels of organic matter being left on the ground.  One plot has all organic matter left, one has 50 percent left and the third has it all burnt off.  The results are surprising…the 50 percent plot has better yields…when I asked why…the scientist explained that the no organic matter plot had lowering yeilds and poor soil fertility etc over time, as expected, similar to pasture rundown in grazing land that isn’t managed properly, but the 100% retained organic matter had declined at pretty much the same rate as the no organic matter plot.  When I questioned the scientist more on this subject, he said that the yield changes were reflected due to disease…the retention of organic matter has increased root diseases and soil borne grubs and pathogens were greatly increased and the total absence of earth worms.  I wondered why and he further explained that the flood irrigation regime applied the same amount of water to each plot, and over time, the plot that has full organic matter covereage is now water logged and getting far too much water, hence the absence of earthworms…..this means that retaining all organic matter means that water application rates could be at least halved and this would eliminate most of the soil problems….The plot is waaaaaay too wet, due to lower evaporation rates etc…another reason to retain organic matter in the soil…the need for less water application……not hard to correlate this over to grazing pasture and the need for good ground cover.

We had lunch next door at the local agricultural college canteena, the college had 3000 students at this particular campus, and another 4000 at another campus.  This district/area alone had 7000 ag students….I reckon that would be nearly greater than the entire yearly ag student total for Australia wouldn’t it….the enthusiasm for agricultural studies is definitley alive and well in Mexico.

Finally caught up with my blogs

Note to self…..don’t get behind again, it takes up too much time to catch up.

……and now for my next trick……pack and get ready to go to Fresno Airport for a 5 am flight to Mexico City then on to Obregon in Mexico…should be finished flying by 8pm tomorrow night.

Sorry for clogging up your Facebook with all these entries in one day.

I chose to miss going to Yosemite National Park to do my catch up….was talking to the fellas and they said they had a good time skiing today, but had a hair-raising trip down the mountain with the roads being covered in ice.  They even nearly came to grief when the bus lost traction and luckily broadsided to the mountain side of the road as opposed to the valley side which was about 1000 foot down a ravine.

Glad I have caught up  and goodnight for now!!!

First Cattle on the GFP yeee haaaa!!!

I will stitch these photos into a panoramic view on Photoshop when I get home.

We finally got to see some cattle…and cattle there was!

This feedlot is privately owned.  Its capacity is 125 000 head, of which the cattle are turned over 2.5 times a year.  They eat 1400 tonnes of rations in 3 feeds a day.  The whole operation uses a million dollars worth of feed a day.  The Harris’ also own another similar sized feedlot and 500 thoroughbred brood mares, of which they sell 300 yearlings a year.

This is the feed mill which prepares feed into three rations for the livestock.  They have the ability to store 2 weeks worth of feed.  They purchase most of their feed components from interstate, (Arizona and texas).  Average daily gain of 3.5 to 4 pounds a day, with the best feed converters being straight Angus or Cross bred Angus cattle….Glenn, we are breeding the right cattle hey!!!!  they have done various studies with straight breeds but nothing beats hybrid vigour for putting weight on cattle.

Temple Grandin has designed all the handling facilities and truck wash area.  Temple Grandin is a world-renowned livestock handler who has been in Australia a few times.

They are only custom feeding 10 percent of the cattle at present.  They own the rest themselves.  We only saw a couple of cross Brahman cattle which come from the company’s properties in Mexico.

They use EIS individual tagging for their own cattle and like their co-partners to have whole of life traceability as well.

They have very little runoff water due to there being such low rainfall, and of this water, it is treated and reused for dust suppression.

They have their own transport enterprises with 40 truckloads of feed being delivered daily.  They have their own power generation plants.  They have looked at co-generation, but there is not enough methane produced to warrant putting in a conversion plant to be viable.

The numbers again are staggering…….but nice to see that another of the biggest ag business in the US is also a family owned business.

Wish Glenn was here to see this, he would have loved it.

 

Unsavoury neighbours next door to Boswell Farms

Dave, the bloke that showed us around the huge farm that the Boswell Family owns, told us about some of his neighbours.  They are not free to come and go very much, because this is San Quentin Prison.  The Boswells are neighbours with Charles Manson, Robert Kennedy assassin (can’t remember his name) and when Robert Downey Junior was incarcerated, he was here also.

Dave reckons they keep pretty much to themselves, and there are not too many wild parties!!!

Farming on gargantuan scale- Boswell and Co

Some of the 85 cotton harvestors that this company owns to harvest their cotton.  This company started in the 1920′s and is a family owned business.

Old Mr Boswell saw the opportunity when the governement was damming up one of the rivers that flooded this lake bed and bought the land cheap prior to the lake being drained.  They now plough just on 200 000 acres on two properties.  They are the biggest cotton producers in the world, baling 200 000 bales a year.  They also produce 3.5 persent of the worlds tomotoes to be made into paste for domestic and international trade.  They pick 200 million pounds of tomatoes a year, have 1500 employees during harvest time and 400 full time employees.  they have 150 people working in the machinery workshop who spend the year preparing the steel for harvest.

This is the way tomatoe paste is shipped to the East US states for reconstitution and to be made into soup, ketchup and other tomatoe products.  They own a massive dehydration plant that removes all but 5 percent of the water.  This makes shipping much more cost effective instead of shipping water in the whole tomatoes.

 

Some of the steel needed to plant and harvest 200 000 acres

The town depot holds 2000 packed bales of cotton outside ready for transport.

Cotton harvesters

This D7 dozer that is used for shifting irrigation channel water, it can pump 750 megs an hour.

Some of the 125 000 acres of ploughed country on this one property.