Thursday, August 15
After an early breakfast at the Country Inn we headed to the West region of Panama where we met Aquiles Acevedo, aka 20 jeans because he bought twenty pairs of wranglers at Walmart which he had to doll out to his friends because his bag was too heavy on their trip to Fort Worth. Aquilles had dual purpose cattle and used the system because when the price of milk is cheap the price of meat is high, and vice versa. His operation was also unique because he used a brewers byproduct year round to supplement his cattle. The byproduct was delivered to his ranch for $870 per 50,0000 pound load. The contract for the byproduct was negotiated by a milk processor in the area. The reason they negotiated the contract was to help increase and stabilize the supply of milk to their plant. By supplementing his cows he was able to produce 9-11 liters per day and allow the cow to still raise a calf. After we toured his milking facility and ranch he took us to pineapple farms that his family owns as well. We toured the pineapple fields where we joked about the trip the Panamanians took to Texas and how much fun they had. It seems like every time we turn around it is time eat again so we returned to the ranch house where Aquiles’ grandmother was preparing lunch for us. It is hard to put into words the surreal feeling you have in a moment when you are enjoying the national dish of Panama, known as soncocho, as the cool breeze is blowing and you are sitting in an open aired porch where the meal has just been prepared over an open flame and chickens are milling around you as you eat. At times I feel like I am filming an episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain which I have always said would be a dream job, and I am doing it.
After lunch we went just down the road to the multi purpose farm of Carlos Herrera. Carlos raised pineapples (the soil in this area is very acidic and ideal for pineapples), dual purpose cattle, and finished steers on grass. The finishing segment of the industry is known ceba and is usally a very low input segment where cattle are bought, turned out, and then sold when they reach a certain weight or the rancher needs money. Carlos however, was supplementing his cattle with a total mixed ration he mixed himself and the cattle were free to graze as well. With this system he was able to grow a steer from 700 pounds to 1000 pounds in approximately three months and had an average daily gain of approximately .75 pounds per day. Carlos, although young, is one of the most intelectual people we have visited and he showed that by experimenting with different ingredients in his ration to decrease the price, including replacing chicken litter with pig litter. He was a producer that no doubt knew his costs and could tell you to the penny the cost of every single aspect of his operation.
We arrived at Julios’ families ranch and the place was beautiful as we drove up a driveway with flowering bushes on either side and arrived at an amazing house with a huge wrap around porch. There were close to 10 people there to greet us including Julio’s sister, mom, and the head of animal health (knows as MIDA) in Panama. Julio had pounds and pounds of meat cooking on grill in an outdoor kitchen on the back porch. We sat and spoke about how impressive the trip has been to this point and ate appetizers (the people in Panama, especially Julio, certainly know how to entertain). Manuel Gonzales,the head of animal health, showed us a presentation he had put together regarding all of the disease statuses and problems the country of Panama was experiencing. The cattle production here does not experience very many illnesses or diseases, and if they do, the producers take initiative and take care of the problem, not the government, because they do not want the reputation of their product diminished. We took a short walk to a set of corrals where Julio’s purebred brahman cattle were and saw how he AI everything and fed silage made of a 10 foot tall grass called Taiwan to increase the productivity of his ranch. Julio was very ingenuitive in the fact that he was putting in an irrigation system where he would grow all the feed ingredients for his operation. After the tour we returned to Julio’s house where we ate pounds of steak, pork, chorizo, and Jess’ favorite empanadas and enjoyed yet another great time with our friends in Panama. As lightning flashed over mountains in the distance, the conversation after dinner was excellent and we discussed the vision of ANAGAN and IRM in Panama. I even agreed to go on a local radio station Julio hosts next Friday at 5:30 in the morning to discuss my trip and give my impressions which will be broadcast across the entire country.
Friday, August 16
We left Julio’s ranch early this morning and drove to the areas of Los Santos and Harrera. Our first stop was at Victor Perez’ farm who, was the former Secretary of Agriculture in Panama, and he and his son graduated from Texas A&M. The operation was extremely intensive and vertically integrated. We started by touring his milk processing plant and cheese factory where all the affluent products were used in some way as irrigation or fertilizer on his dairy farm. Victor was extremely well traveled where he used things he saw in other countries to incorporate into his own ranch including, irrigation from New Zealand (which was an oversized version of the crawling sprinklers used in yards in the US), brazilian haylage equipment, and tifton 85 from Texas. It was incredible to see an operation that literally did not let anything go to waste and tried to use things that seemed to be waste somewhere else on the ranch.
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