Situation/weather: After having faced a wet summer as Northeast Argentina has been hit by extensive flooding (please refer to post of January 2019), water is evacuating more slowly than it used to, reducing the available grassing area for the cattle.

Our situation is not unique as our neighbours are facing the same situation. After having performed some investigations, it appears that not only the river has been affected by the flood faced earlier this year, but some illegal internal protection wall built by some farmers upper the river has changed the water course. Local authorities are investigating to identify the origin of the problems and to take measures against. Meanwhile, we are also talking with our neighbours to the local authorities so that they start to perform readjustments in the river and authorize us also to build some internal protections to prevent.

Cattle operation (2,613 heads): Overall the cattle is in decent condition given the situation faced earlier this year (heifers and female calves suffered the most). We are working on the improvement of the heifers since beginning of December; we will start with the insemination process of the heifers. We have currently 363 heifers (2 years old) at the farm. Our objective is to achieve a pregnancy ratio above 80% with 80% of weaned calves. Last year, we registered 76% of pregnancy ratio.

20 young bulls (2 years old) have just been transferred from Curupi Pora farm for genetic purpose. Bull selection can be the most powerful method of genetic improvement in the herd. However, young bulls have not the same fertility power as they are still growing and so far, they have only been fattened (overly fat). Bulls should be gradually stepped down in condition to avoid nutritional disorders and adverse effects on semen production.