Situation/weather: Weather conditions improved in the north since February after having faced a very wet January. Cumulative rainfall for July – April was 1,596 mm, +24% compared with the historical average for the same period due to excess rainfalls registered from November to January this year (1,012 mm in 3 months).
Silage and pasture program: 208 ha of OAT and 145 ha of Ray-grass have been sowed instead of corn and are developing well. Ray-grass and OAT have both a high protein content to feed cattle and support high loads of animals per hectare. In addition, OAT is also cleaning the soil and improving its structure.
The heavy rainfalls which occurred previously favoured pasture development which were dry after past cycle (last year, the region suffered until April from an intense drought).
Cattle operation: Our cattle herd (5,595 heads currently) is in excellent shape and taking advantage of pastures densification. You can see below some of our categories.
Heifers 1 year old
Female Calves
Pregnant Heifers (1st pregnancy)
Pregnant Cows
Cattle sales took also benefit from better prices: Prices were up in 2019 as beef exports raise. According to the latest report from the under-secretary of livestock, beef production is down by 4.6% in comparison to 2018 while exports are climbing by 33% – of which China represents 67% of the exports in the 1st quarter of 2019 while it was 56% in 2018.
As a direct consequence, cattle prices were up between 67 and 74% (in AR$) since April 2018, and above inflation (55%).