Pure Bred Cattle In Veraguas, Panama

Sunday, August 18

We started today at the Gran Azuerrto in Chitre where we have stayed the last two nights and it was great.  The members went out of their way to assure we were comfortable and even booked us the suite in the hotel.  As always they made sure we had enough food to feed a small village.  We left at 7:30 and headed to Satntiago, Veraguas to meet Manuel Castillo where we would be staying the night at his house.  When we arrived at his house he and his wife were so welcoming and continued to tell us that his house was our house and to come visit in the future.  We dropped our bags, and our host for the day, Juan Gonzales, met us and we headed out to his ranch near Sona, Veraguas.  The area is not as mountainous as the country we have been in Veraguas province had coasts on both the Pacific and Caribbean Oceans and is a very agriculture based area.  

Juan had two different herds on his ranch, one was a purebred Brahman herd and the other was a commercial herd that was crossbred with Brahman and Simental. His Brahman cattle were raised only on grass and supplemented only salt and mineral.  He also added sulfur to his mineral to help repel tics and parasites.  He was a very progressive producer and you could tell because he knew all of his cost and was a great forage manager.  By not having to supplement his cows in the dry season, and still maintain an 80%+ conception rate, he could lower his breakeven costs to help offset the decreased prices he received because the bulls and cows were not as fat as other purebred producers who he competed against.    He explained the reason he was able to accomplish no supplemental feeding is because he based his stocking rates on head per kilogram of forage, not head per hectare (2.2 acres). . He also pointed out that the size of his cows were 1.25 animal units and this was another reason for a more conservative stocking rate.  These aspects of Juan’s ranch shows the efficiency of his production and possibly the direction many producers in the country may be going.  

Juan (middle) and I (right) discuss his purebred operation 

Roping a bull Panamanian style

Juan and I in front of Baton De Oro-when young the plant contains 15%-20% protein and is used as feed in a lot of areas.

Juan showing us a set of his cows

I feel like I am repeating myself but the red carpet the people of Panama have rolled out is getting extremely long.  We left Juan’s ranch and drove to Hermes Rodriguez’ ranch where they once again treated us to a fantastic lunch of beef fajitas, corn fritters, and chicken soup which was enjoyed on the front porch as we took a short break and relaxed.  

A much needed rest

We drove about 15 minutes down the road to Mr. Rodriguez’ ranch and saw a purebred operation which raised Brahman as well as Senepol cattle.  This was my first time to witness Senepol cattle in person and I was extremely impressed.  The cattle originated on the island of St. Croix where N Dama cattle and Redpol cattle were crossed and Senepol was created.

Senepol Genealogy

The breed is extremely well adapted to the tropical climate but still has characteristics of Bos Taurus cattle.  These characteristics include tenderness, moderate size, longevity, mothering ability, and good milking ability.  Some of the cows we saw where twelve years old and still in production, and the ranch had both the World Brahman Congress Champion and the Senepol breeder of the year award.

The Rodriguez family with the Senepol breeder of the year award

During the visit a television crew, which was filming a documentary on the ranch for a local television program, asked me to speak and give my impressions of my trip and the overall cattle industry in Panama, to which I reiterated how wonderful the trip had been and how much potential I see in the cattle industry in Panama. I agreed and luckily I had a great translator in Hermes’ brother who was fluent in english. It completely caught me off gaurd so hopefully I did not look too bad on the big screen. 

I make my big screen debut

Hermes explains the characteristics of Senepol cattle (notice the tv camera in the background)

Panamanian cowboy crew

After our tour of the ranch we returned to the ranch house and enjoyed Panamanian coffee (I am going to start importing this stuff into the US it is so good-im hooked) and talking about the potential the Senepol breed poses for the region as it is very up and coming breed which has only been in Panama for about 10 years.  The Rodriguez’ family is are very progressive in pursuing the breed and developing a market for a better quality meat within the country.

Senepol cow (12 years old and still in production) on nothing but grass-no supplementation-the rain is coming

We returned to Manuel Castillo’s house and were able to relax for about an hour before we headed off to dinner.  As we sat in the living room of the Castillo’s house a nice rain came over and cooled it off immensely which was much appreciated as today was the hottest day of the trip (32 degrees celsius, I have not idea how hot that is but I know I was sweating, but that may have been my nerves from shooting my tv debut).  I think we are good luck because there has not been a day that has passed that we did not witness rain but this one was by far the biggest amount and lasted for close to an hour.  All the windows and doors were open in the house, as most of them are during the day, and we couldn’t have asked for a better way to wind down at the end of a busy day.

Our dinner crew for the night.