Yesterday, January 3, we went to Don Pancho another farm owned by the Fossati Family. They first showed us a presentation on their operation, outlining the livestock and crop ends of things. Then they took us out to the feedlot to show us their feed mill, the feedlot itself, and the area where they work cattle. One major difference between the United States and feedlots in Argentina was that the feedlots in Argentina are not always situated on the main home place, but rather many of them are located on ground that would be hard to farm crops on. Many are placed in large dips or on the tops of steep hills in the middle of the fields so the good ground for crop farming is not wasted.
At the feedmill we were shown their grinding facility which consisted of a spinning grinder that had the ability to grind 5000 kilos or about 2270 lbs per hour. All of the corn they produced went towards feeding cattle and they didn't sell any of it. For a diet they used ground corn with 4% water in it. Other items in the diet included sunflower pellets, corn silage, and minerals. The way the corn was processed was that it was dumped into a large holding bin and then poured through the grinder, then it was brought up an auger and down onto a pile in what you could compare to a commodity holding shed in the U.S. The ration was then mixed when it was put onto the feed wagon.
We were then showed the feedlot. The amount of area on there farm used for livestock was 5361 hectares or about 2430 acres. Most of the breeds in the feedlot were ones similar to the ones we have in the US. They did have some Braford cattle there, which are crosses between Hereford and Brahman cattle. They also had a corral full of intact bulls. The reason they did this is because bulls are more efficient at converting feed than steers. There also is no price difference between bulls and steers as long as they are sold before two years of age. Some potential drawbacks are that the meat is a little leaner and not as tender and the bulls need a lot of energy in their diet. This is not a problem, however, as corn is plentiful for the Fassoti's. The last thing they showed us was was their cattle working facility. It was a large system made entirely of wood, very different from what we see at home. The working facility was about 30 years old that had not incorporated many of the technologies our cattle working systems in the U.S. have now adopted.
Written by Chad Knoblock
Viewing the feed mill and corn storage facility at Don Poncho. They feed ground corn to their feedlot feedlot animals.
A
new adventure at Don Poncho is to feed out bulls. These must be
sold by 2 yrs old and there seems to be interest and demand for this in
Argentina due to leaner meat, more efficient growth.
Dairy Steers on feed at Don Poncho.
Working
facilities at Don Poncho. All chute systems are wooden and even have
wooden squeeze and head gates. No metal head gates as we would have in
the U.S.
