Panama Daily Diary
Sunday, August 11
Jessica and I left Rick Husband International Airport in
Amarillo, Tx this morning and flew to Houston Intercontinental where we boarded
United Flight 1034 to Panama City.
We arrived in Panama at 7:00 pm where Julio Ramirez, the vice president
of ANAGAN, was waiting to pick us up.
Julio treated us to a great supper of fresh sea bass, octopus, greek
salad, and fried egg plant at Jimmys Restaurant. We are just settling into our room at the Country Inn near
the Canal district and are going to get some much needed sleep before an early
morning and full 2 weeks of work.
Monday, August 12
We had an early morning that started with an alarm blaring at
5:00 am and then departed the hotel with
Luis Marques at 6:00 am. We
traveled approximately 3 hours
east of Panama city to the Province of Darien where we visited with Damien
Montenegro. Damien was a very
progressive cattleman that also had an order buying service for producers in
the area. His cattle were
primarily Brahman with a controlled breeding season as well as a ranch that was
covered with Brachiardia Humidico as tall as the bellies of the cows (which
were not dwarfs and quite tall).
He had a quote that really impacted me when he said, “my favorite cow
was a bred cow.” This quote may
not seem very significant, however Luis explained that this is very rare with
producers in a country that had an average conception rate or 50%-55%. He kept all of his animals until they
were fully grown and marketed them to a slaughter house in Los Santos, a 12
hour truck ride from his ranch.
His order buying service was also unique by offering the producers in
Darien the ability to bring livestock to a pen on his ranch on Mondays and
Thursdays. After the cattle arrived Damien then weighed the animals and housed
them until a truck from the slaughterhouse arrived to haul them to Los
Santos. We were fortunate enough
to witness a Toyota pickup with stock racks arrive with a Brahman cow and bull
and see Damien unload the animals, run them across digital scales (we were in
the middle of nowhere so digital scales caught me off guard). The producers loved this method because
before his service they were receiving $300-$400 for an animal and are now
receiving $700. The thing that I
found interesting was that there was no price differential for an animal with a
very high yield grade compared to a low yield grade. This gave no incentive to produce a quality animals and
actually rewarded the producers that were producing lower performing cattle by
paying them the same price for less meat.
Our second stop was to Fabio Gardibaldo who was a rancher
that produced dual purpose cattle of Sentipol crossed with Brown Swiss, Jersey,
or Holstein. The milking operation
was unique as Fabio milked the cows every morning at 5:00 am after the calves
had been separated from the cows all night. The calves were returned to the cows from 6:00 am to 12:00
pm and allowed to nurse for the morning. In the afternoon the calves were then
separated again, and the process continued. His cows produced 6-7 liters of milk per day which is not
exceptional, however, he was selling two products, one being milk and the other
being bull calves. An advantage
Fabio had was a niche market for his milk which was a woman that made cheese
just down the road from his ranch.
His concept was that the milk paid the bills of the operation, and the
sale of bull calves was money to put in his pocket. He produced sugar cane as well which was used as a
supplement for the cattle in the dry season. I have never witnessed a set of cows that were so content
with four strangers, one wearing a foreign cowboy hat, to walk through them as
they contently grazed as if no people were in the pasture.
Today ended with a delicious supper of shrimp, beef, and
fried plantains at Ovidio Saavedras’ house in Chepo. The meal was prepared by
Ovidio’s wife and we were able to enjoy it at their personal dinner table as we
exchanged personal stories of Jessica and I expecting our first child, as well
as the wonderful memories and appreciation Ovidio had on his trip to Texas with
the Institute of Ranch Management in June. He shared a memory that he had been to the United States
twice before his trip with the IRM and it was good but, was simply a
sightseeing tour of the cattle industry.
The trip with IRM however, was a trip where he truly witnessed real
production agriculture and a developed relationships with producers. We just
returned to Luis Marques’ house in Chepo that he inherited from his grandmother
and are getting ready for day two which I can only imagine will be more
rewarding than the first.
Tuesday, August 13
We began, after a restless night for Jessica because of a
fifteen year old dog howling outside our window (which I never heard), on the
ranch of Ovidio Saavedra in the Chepo district of Panama Province. Ovidio’s father, Ovivio Sr., joined us
which was extremely insightful because he had grown up on the ranch his entire
life and was now 78 years old. The
operation was more of a traditional cow calf operation in which he sold the
calves after being weaned for 2-3 weeks.
Ovidio was very knowledgeable of all the forages including leaves from
trees that contained up to 15% protein.
The leaves as well as a native grass similar to indian grass were mixed
to create a very nutritious feed.
I once again was blown away by the handling of the cattle in some of the
most rugged mountains and dense forests I had ever been in because they simply
whistled and the Brahman cattle (notorious in the U.S. for being wild as
impalas) would appear out of nowhere and run into a corral where they were
attracted by Ovidio Sr.’s voice and a mixture of salt and mineral. All of this took place while the cows
were confined behind a three strand barbed wire fence constructed with live trees and used the topography
of ridges and canyons to their advantage.
Witnessing this stockmanship of Brahman cattle completely flew in the
face of the stereotype the cattle have in the U.S. (unless they are Hudggins’
of course). The views on the ranch were amazing with mountain vistas and the
greenest grass I have ever seen kneehigh as far as you could see.
We amended our agenda in the afternoon because the ranch we
were supposed to visit had sold.
This ended up being a very beneficial detour because we were able to visit
a local auction barn on sale day and witness the activities which were more or
less exactly the same as the auction barns in the United States. Less the
waitresses that served us coffee and cookies as we watched hundreds of cattle
run through the ring and sold to eager buyers who we were sitting amongst them
(I’m beginning to fall in love with Latin America at this point if you cannot
tell).
We made a short stop in Panama City to eat lunch and went to
the ANAGAN office to use the internet.
After we were able to coorespond with our counterparts at TCU we left
Panama City and drove to the Province of Colon. On the drive I was able to talk with Luis Marques and the
conversation was very inlightening (the entire conversation took place with me
speaking in only Spanish and Luis speaking in only english). Luis shared that he believes the
biggest problem with cattle production in Panama is the fact that no producers
have records, therefore they can not make improvements to deffecencies they may
have (you cannot improve what you don’t measure). The problem of poor reproduction effeciency is also a problem
which he contributed to poor nutrition during the dry season. The majority of producers do not
supplement there cattle during the dry season (summer here) so the condition of
the cows greatly decreases and they are not able to rebreed when the rains begin. He has conducted a workshop where he
shared the idea with fellow producers to breed cows according to the forage
growth curve and not a specific date because it is all dependent on rain and
climate in different areas. It was
extremely intriguing to here him share his theories on the cattle industry
because they all completely alligned with the building blocks of the Ranch
Management Program. He used
phrases that were almost exactly like those at TCU such as, the fact you cannot
improve what you do not measure, cattle production is a systems approach, and
the fact that producers in Panama “must see before they know”. The last idea is extremely similar to
the critical concept of the field trips at the Program. Producers must witness technology and
innovative ideas being used on actual ranches, much like field trips for
students in the program, in order to peak there interest and put the same
concepts into action. We discussed
the idea of the Institute returning to Panama and conducting short courses to
help educate the producers on principles of the program and innovative
production practices. Luis thinks
it would be very beneficial to implement some of these changes on two or three
ranches that belong to very willing and progressive producers so that more
reserved producers can go and, “see before they know”, or witness the changes
are improving their herds first hand.
I believe the Institute needs to form a very good relationship and keep
Luis involved because it is almost bizarre that his thoughts and philosophies
align with the teachings of the program so closely and to such a large
extent. In the end we felt this
was the best path forward for the IRM in Panama and if there a one or two
prospective students that decide to attend the Program it will be an even a
greater success.
We arrived at a beautiful estate in Colon after crossing the
Panama Canal, where the road was within 50 feet of the gates of the locks. On our right was the Atlantic Ocean and
on our left was the locks that connected the ocean to Lake Gatun. The road then turned into one of the
windiest and roughest road I have ever experienced and to add to it Luis was
not familiar to it and it was dark (not to mention the fast and jerky nature of
drivers in Panama). I felt so bad
for Jessica because her stomach was more upset than at any other time during
her 3 months of pregnancy to this point.
However, once we arrived at the estate of Roy Cortizo we were treated to
the best meal we have had so far.
It was a Panamanian version of beef stroganoff over rice and was
unbelievably delicious. To add to
this experience, it was enjoyed to the sound of waves washing ashore on the
beach which was mere yards away from the dinner table but we could not see it. After dinner we visited with an
employee of Roy’s and shared pictures and stories of our ranches and families
in the U.S. We talked about
everything from the fact that we used quarter horses to work cattle, which he
was extremely impressed with and wanted to see pictures, to the 17 inch snow
storm we experienced this past winter.
We are extremely anxious to wake up in the morning see the beautiful
ocean view that Luis has been telling us about all evening. Hopefully Jessica will sleep better to
the peaceful sound of waves washing ashore and not a dog howling through the
night.
Wednesday, August 14
Wow, where to even start? Just when I think the country of Panama and our trip can not
be more impressive it continues to blow me away. This morning a rooster (at least it wasn’t a dog) woke us up
outside our window about 6:00 am but it was more the view we were about to
experience as well worth the wake up call. We enjoyed breakfast at the personal table of Roy Cortiz’
again and it was fabulous as all our meals have been to this point. The estate was a sprawling open aired
house with handcrafted Saltio tile and masonry throughout every walkway and
building. The view from the porch
literally took our breath away as we enjoyed the meal a mere 200 feet from the
Atlantic Ocean. After breakfast we
walked to the corrals, which were just the other side of the yard and
constructed of cement block and cement walkway, where they kept purebred
Brahman cattle they used as herd bulls, donor cows, and to show. Roy was not able to be at the ranch, however
his manager showed us the entire operation. After admiring and even petting the pet like bulls and cows
we took a tour into the pasture where they kept the herd Roy selected the show
animals from. We saw green grass
everywhere, again, and even witnessed
two employees that did nothing but hand cut grass with machetes all day and
load it into rope bags. The fresh
cut grass was fed to the the animals in the corrals. Some of the cattle we saw in the pasture were recip cows
that were crossbred with Simental or Holstein to increase milk production. After touring the pasture amongst palm
trees with the amazing view of the ocean behind it was time to leave and Luis
almost had to force me to get into the car. Words cannot do it justice so pictures will have to
suffice. We are now headed to the
Canal to eat lunch at a restaurant next to the locks and Lake Gatun and look
out at the construction of the enlargement of the Panama Canalatu and look out
over the construction of the enlargement of the Panamal Canal
After lunch we drove up the coast in the province of Colon as
we climbed out of the coastal lowlands and into the highlands near the small
town of Portobello. We drove by
ancient ruins which included a fort still containing cannons on a cliff overlooking
the Carribean Ocean. Luis told us the ruins were a Spanish fort and the cannons
were used to fire on pirate ships.
We then arrived at a the ranch of Pablo Rueda who was a producer of
crossbred cattle including Simental and Charolais crossed with Brahman. His operation included one ranch which was
a cow calf operation where he artificially inseminated Brahman cows with
Simental and Charolais semen and then bred his crossbred heifers back to a
brahman bull and continued this cycle.
He took all the steer calves to another ranch to grow out and finish. The calves were marketed at 1000 pounds
and sold direct to the slaughterhouse.
The area was somewhat opposite to other areas because they received rain
year round and there dry season was simply a time of less than average
rain. His calves actually
performed better during this drier time because the dry matter in the forage
increased and they were able to digest more nutrients from the grass and not a
large amount of water which the grass had in the wet season. In rudimentary ranch calculations we
determined the average daily gain for the steers was approximately 1.22 pounds
per day year round and required no supplementation. The fact that producers in the U.S. refuse to use A.I.
because they do not have the infrastructure is comical because the producers
here are using it all over the country and the facilities are primitive
compared to those in the U.S.
We were also able to visit a small storefront on his ranch
that Coopugan had that sold antibiotics, dewormers, and a small amount of ranch
supplies. The coop required
producers to pay a one time membership fee of $500 and they were then able to
purchase supplies at a discounted price as well receive a percentage of profits
at the end of the year. Pablo also
explained he is continuing to use crossbreeding and higher yielding cattle
because Coopugan has recently purchased a meat fabrication facility and will
begin to pay producers on a grid system they are trying to set up. Pablo was a very old man yet he still
realized he was raising quality cattle yet not capitalizing a price
differential yet that was about to change.
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