Back from Argentina

I made it back from Argentina today at 12:00 after leaving Buenos Aires on Sunday. It was a good day to travel as weather did not cause any delays and we even got into Des Moines early! All in all it was a great trip and a great learning opportunity. I will just share a few highlights.

While I tend to like the red ones better - John Deere equipment was all over the place and just as modern as we have here in the USA. It is interesting farming structure because a farmer in Argentina does not drive the equipment, they make the decisions - farms do not own their own equipment - it is all contract work. Very interesting compared with the US. I described my families farm and to Argentina that way of farming was referred to as something you see in the movies because in their case the farmer does not live on the land he farms - they typically live in the cities.

One of the many great things about Argentina is the food. That country consumes more meat per person than anywhere in the world -- I think it was like 70 kilos per year. We were hosted on a farm by a family. It was a large house with 14 beds (lots of kids at one time). They grilled for us and cooked pork and beef to perfection - they love to grill. One interesting thing about eating in Argentina is that dinner (evening meal) begins late - no earlier than 9:00. This particular night at the farm it was 11:00 and we were sitting down to a steak dinner and finished up around 1:00. They are late to bed and are up and going by 8:00.

Interesting sight. Palm trees and soybean fields - don't see that in Iowa. Field size is large, 120A on average so they run big equipment. The soils are good like Iowa but do not have the same water holding capacity, and they have the heat like the Mid-south USA.

We visited some research fields where people are conducting research trials similar to what I do here in the US. They can do a lot of different things with raising crops since they have such a long growing season. Double crop is common (Wheat followed by soybean in the same season) and they can plant a wide range of RM corn hybrids and MG soybean. Harvest will start down there in about a month on the early stuff and continue for more than a month probably. Very spread out planting and harvest, another reason farmers do not own their own equipment - there is not the urgency to get planting and harvest finished since they don't have cold springs and early fall frosts.

Buenos Aires is a big city - 16 million - it was a fairly easy city to drive and navigate through. Streets are well marked. This street in particular is interesting because it is the widest street in the world. I think there are 12+ lanes of traffic - divided 3 - 3 -3 -3 by boulevards with 6 running the same direction.

It was a great trip and I learned a lot. I had a number of misconceptions about agriculture there. It is very similar to the US in terms of products and equipment available. The major things that hold them back right now are a poorer road system. The interstates and highways are very good - good as the US - but gravel roads are poor. They are basically dirt or sand roads and that makes it more difficult to ship grain - so they have higher transportation costs. They also pay high taxes and and something called a "retention" (35% off the sale price) on their grain to the government so it is difficult to make money there as well by raising crops.

I will post a few more pictures in the coming days. That is all for now.

Jason