Blogs from Brazil – Part 2 by April Hemmes

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Shannon Latham, Vice President

Guest blog by
April Hemmes, Hampton, Iowa

Franklin County farmer April Hemmes is traveling through Brazil with a group of Iowans. You can get a sneak peek at Brazilian culture and agriculture here. Read below for a daily account of her journey.

Saturday, Feb. 18

Brasilia, the Capital of Brazil

Today we toured Brasília, the capital of Brazil. After taking a bus tour of the city, group members chose to shop or attend carnival (carnaval) celebrations. Carnival is similar to New Orleans’ Mardis Gras with parades, costumes, dancing and lots of food. Different regions of Brazil hold carnival annually in February or March, depending on the date of Easter. It ends as Lent begins since historically Lent is a period during which there are no parties and people refrain from eating rich foods in honor of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness.

Sunday, Feb. 19

Today we took a two-hour flight from Brasília, followed by a three-hour bus ride to Primavera do Leste. Primavera do Leste is located in Mato Grasso, the agricultural region of Brazil where they raise a lot of Zebu, which is the Indian cattle breed that resembles Brahma.

Rain storm on Hell's Kitchen

Riccardo, our guide, farms with his brother. The soybeans they planted in October and November is now ready to harvest. Yields will average 53 bushel/acre this year, which is a little less than normal. Sometimes they harvest beans at 25% moisture, so they have to dry them. They do not double crop beans because of rust. Corn planting will follow soybeans harvest, but they must plant corn before the middle of February to get a good crop.

One interesting thing about how they do business here is that they buy things in “bags of soybeans.” For example, if I were to buy an acre of land, it would be 400 bags. A bag of soybeans here is 2.2 bushels, so it comes to roughly $3,200/acre. The same goes for a combine or any equipment purchase, so the price of everything fluctuates with the price of beans!

Monday, Feb. 20

The soybeans are looking good

Today we visited a huge farm. And I do mean HUGE! Totaling 500,000 acres and 50,000 livestock, it’s one of the world’s largest farms. It has storage capacity for 5.5 million. It also has the world’s largest John Deere fleet.

Cotton and soybeans are their principal crops with corn, rice and beans as secondary crops. They also have a fish farm, so we got to watch their annual fish harvest. We also got to watch combines harvest soybeans and learned the big drought southern Brazil is lowering yields to 49-51 bushels/acre. Soybeans are harvested as wet as 25%, so they dry them with Eucalyptus wood burners. It’s a sustainable energy source as they plant 20 acres of Eucalyptus; it takes eight years for a tree to reach maturity.

What an interesting day! We could look one way and see soybeans being harvested, turn another way and see cotton growing, and then look another direction and see corn being planted in the same field.

American Meat vs. American Agriculture

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Amy Hild, Graphic Artist

MUSINGS OF A MIDWEST PIG FARMER
by Larry Sailer
Feb. 21, 2012

Photo courtesy of AgriNews.com

With less than 2% of the world’s population engaged in production agriculture, farmers shoulder a lot of responsibility to feed a growing world. It’s been said repeatedly that we’ll have to double crop yields by 2030 in order to meet food/feed demand. Population growth and rising incomes are driving increased demand for high-value animal protein, as well. That’s why it continues to amaze – and perplex – me how and why people continue to criticize food production and pit consumer against farmer and even farmer against farmer. It seems the definition of “sustainable agriculture” has become convoluted.

The complexity of this issue really hit home for melate last week when I stepped into a classroom at CAL (Coulter-Alexander-Latimer) High School in rural Franklin County, Iowa. CAL, like many other schools nationwide, showed a screening of the Graham Meriwether’s documentary entitled American Meat. This film criticizes many modern production practices and encourages farmers to raise livestock on pasture rather than inside buildings.

“There’s no reason for a confinement house in the country, in the word, anywhere!” says Joel Salatin of Virginia in American Meat. As someone who’s been engaged in farming for 50 years, I can think of several reasons for raising livestock in buildings. For starters, let’s consider the Midwest’s climate and weather patterns. The average temperature of an Iowa winter is about 34 degrees, and often the mercury dips below the freezing point. How comfortable is it for pigs to root through snowdrifts during a freezing, cold Iowa winter?

My family raised pigs outside for a number of years, and in doing so,we experienced more problems with disease, pests and weather. Because of Iowa’s weather patterns, we farrowed outdoors in spring and fall. The majority of pigs were raised this way, so the worst market prices were whenthe porksupply was the largest in the fall and in the spring. Moving our pigs inside allowed us to farrow year roundand recognize better market prices. Indoor hog operations also allow us to raise a leaner, more consistent product that was driven mainly by consumers. During the 1980s, there was a public perception that chicken was healthier than pork. Today’s pork is actually leaner than chicken, and because of this, our hogs don’t have enough natural insulation (i.e. fat) to handle inclement weather. Lean genetics were bred primarily into hardy Large White pigs, but this breed also gets sunburn and is better suited for indoor environments.

“We know pigs are ‘happier’ in warm, dry buildings,” writes Missouri hog farmer Blake Hurst in his Feb. 19 editorial to the New York Times. Hurst’s editorial refutes the Chipotle restaurant’s recent ad campaign saying the company uses only “happy pigs.” The day after the Grammy Awards, during which Chipotle’s ad first aired, McDonald’s announced it would require its pork suppliers to end the use of gestation crates. While crates restrict a sow’s movements, they also serve their purpose. Gestation stalls ensure sows get the nutrition they need to produce healthy piglets. Otherwise, sows fight for feed. The stronger, more aggressive sows get the most food and often get too fat. The more timid sows are often undernourished during the gestationperiod, which can result in underdeveloped offspring.

I love opportunities to talk with consumers about how we raise pork and why. In fact, I did just that today. Earlier today I was the guest speaker for the Morning Exchange Club of Waterloo (similar to Lions, Rotary and Kiwanis). They got to know me, an Iowa hog farmer. And they had an opportunity to get their questions answered.

“Know your farmer” is a statement made in the American Meat documentary. And it’s a statement I can agree with… in my own context! Americans have the privilege of living in the “land of the free.” This means we all have the freedom to choose. It also means that we operate under a free market economy. So, let the market place determine what foods get produced and how they are produced. Farmers’ markets and the local foods movement have their place as do larger scale operations. There’s enough demand – and enough need – for all farmers.

Blogs from Brazil by April Hemmes

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Shannon Latham, Vice President

Brazil’s Vice President of Government Affairs was the evening’s hostess. She’s pictured here with April Hemmes.

Guest blog by
April Hemmes, Hampton, Iowa

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012

I’m traveling in Brazil with Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and Delaware Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Kee. These gentlemen are friends, who decided to form a delegation from both states to learn about agriculture in Brazil.

: Floating town on the Amazon

Today we arrived in Manaus, which was a 5-hour flight from Miami. Manaus, which is located along the Amazon River, was formed when rubber plantations were big here. The Rio Negro and another tributary of the Amazon converge in Manaus. The rivers run side by side, one is black water and one white. It’s truly amazing to see! The reason for difference in appearance is because the Rio Negro is denser and warmer in temperature with a faster current.

The Amazon is huge; it’s 6 miles across in places. (Yes, 6 miles!!) And we were told the Amazon is actually longer than the Nile because GPS can trace the start of the original tributary farther into the rainforest. Huge ships haul goods in and out. Ships filled with goods head up river to municipalities, and it takes 7 days to reach some cities.

Making a rubber ball

A boat stopped at the rubber plantation where we got to see how rubber is produced. A rubber tree is tapped at night and latex drips into a can. Then, over an open fire, the canned drippings are stirred until a big, black rubber ball forms.

Some of us walked around the block to see the big church in town. Many street vendors were selling all sorts of goods. Manaus is a city where the ratio of women to men is 6 to 1. Since I’m the only women on this trip, I have the better ratio of 37 to 1!

Tomorrow we fly to Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil. It’s a totally planned city. They took a clear tract of land and then moved the capital there in the 1950s.

Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012

Manaus Opera House

This morning we stopped by the Manaus Opera House. It’s truly beautiful. All of the materials were brought over from Europe. Located inside the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil, it hosts the Amazonas Opera Festival every year from March until May. It’s also home to the Amazonas Philharmonic Orchestra.

After a quick stop at the opera house, we traveled over a brand new bridge crossing the Rio Negro. This bridge is almost 2 miles long – at the most narrow point of the river! This bridge opened up the southern side of the river for commerce & building. Before the bridge was built, people from Manaus had to wait 5 hours to cross the river in a ferry. Now they can cross in just minutes.

As we headed south, it was apparent we were heading deeper into the jungle. Our destination was a banana plantation. The plantation owner said that after clearing the land they had to fertilize it for 6 years until it could sustain banana plants. After one shoot produces a bunch, they are cut off and another shoot will produce the next bunch. New plants are germinated from rhizomes of an existing plant. The soil is very acidic so it takes calcium (lime) to make it productive, but this is very expensive. When fresh bananas aren’t as valuable, they make their bananas into a gummy candy. We were treated to some, and it’s very tasty!

Friday, Feb. 17, 2012

People in the corn field that should yield 185-200 bu/A

Today we left Brasilia for a lovely 5-hour bus ride to a farm owned by John Carroll, an Illinois farmer who owns 30,000 acres here.

During the ride, our guide gave us a history of the area. Brasilia is the capital of Brazil. It’s a planned city laid out in the shape of a cross. The city was built between 1955 and 1960. It was designed for 500,000 people but has grown to 2.5 million.

Other random facts we learned today:

Hunting is forbidden here except by indigenous people.
The Brazilian government has made it very difficult foreigners to buy land here.

John Carroll shared many of the regulations by which he has to abide. He also said he first thought he would just raise soybeans but found cotton was a great crop due to favorable growing conditions. Cotton can be planted continuously as long as no trash is left on the field because of the Boll Weevil.

“Cotton spends the first 60 days figuring how to die and then we spend the last 60 days figuring how to kill it,” said John. Next year he will plant 50% of his acres to cotton with the rest corn and soybeans.

Corn is planted here at populations of 29,000 – 30,000; soybeans are planted at 130,000.

John explained that it took 6 to 7 years for his land to get to fertility. They found it came into production sooner by saturating the ground with P & K rather than just giving the crop what it needed for that year. He also mentioned that one of the biggest problems they have with the soil is aluminum toxicity, so they apply lime.

Entrance to the farm headquarters

Corn harvest will start next month, followed by soybeans and then cotton for the next three months. John hires the corn and soybeans harvested. Harvest crews travel all over the country much like a wheat run in the U.S.

Contiguous farms in Brazil consist of 8,000 to 11,000 acres. The Brazilian government requires land owners to leave 20% in its natural state, but higher percentages are required the closer you get to the rainforest. Farmers can also mitigate the land, so they have large areas of brush land they can buy.