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NE Nebraska | We took a tour 12 years ago. We hired a gentleman (Jorge Horacio Cazenave- died in 2022) who had previously served as undersecretary of agriculture in Argentina. Highly knowledgeable and highly regarded in the ag industry. He frequently traveled to the US so he was well versed on US agriculture and our potential tour interests.
We first spent a couple days in Buenos Aires on our own with a few family members who had some Spanish conversational skills. Visited Recoleta cemetery and walking tours in the city. Then we took the tour out into more rural areas December 18-21. We definitely needed a translator. There were 4 of us that went in the van along with Jorge and the driver. It was ALL very interesting. Initially we thought about skipping Rosario, the terminal and boat ride, but that was really worth the time and cost.
These are some of the notes from our trip.
DAY 1: Visited a farm where they have some gaucho demonstration and lunch typical Argentine “asado”, BBQ.
Then traveled to Melincué, in the Province of Santa Fe. Lodge at Melincué casino and Resort. This got us out into a rural area. We met with an implement dealer.
DAY: 2 Visit to a large scale crop group that leases land, in the Venado Tuerto area. Saw soybean fields that were at full season, knee high and double crop after wheat or barley, about a foot high.
Also visited some equipment and input dealers and some farms (small and big scale). Had lunch with group of agri-businessmen. Overnight Melincué Casino and Resort
DAY 3 Morning visit to a farm--entrepreneur that owns 260 hectares but plants more than 1000 with his own equipment. He plants mainly corn, soybeans and wheat in no till agriculture and also has full cycle cattle operation. He also plan green and chick peas. He was one of the directors of the Rural Society of Pergamino, equivalent to the Farm Bureau at county level. He discussed farming practices, crop rotation, fertilization and herbicide management, commercial and financial aspects of the operation. Toured his machinery shed in town, to get an idea of the type of technology which used in the area, where most farmers don’t own large equipment, but hire the heavy labor. He owned planters and drillers as well as some conventional tools, self propelled sprayer, combines and full equipment for grain storage and transportation. He also store grain in big plastic tubes holding up to 200 MT of grain. Equipment to put and take of the grain were there. Had lunch in farmer's home. With his own trucks he transport the grain to the big terminals located along the Paraná River, some 300 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. The river is about 90 miles away.
At end of the visit we traveled to Rosario, in the province of Santa Fe, the second largest city of Argentina with a population of about 1.5 million people.
Lodge in a Rosario Hotel such as Presidente or similar.
DAY 4:Morning visit to one of the big terminals where they load Panamax grain ship carriers. Panamax stand for maximum size ship passing through the Panama Canal. The ship carrying capacity goes from 30,000 to 90,000 MT, equivalent of 1,000 to 3,000 truck loads. In the river they load about 70 % of total capacity being one of the most cheap and sophisticated ways to handle grain. The Paraná River is one of the tools that make Argentina very competitive in the World Market arena. Grain and other products travel on barges more than 1,500 miles up river going into the SW of Brazil, W of Bolivia and crossing Paraguay. This is one of the reasons of Rosario to be the largest crushing and biodiesel plant concentration of the World. We took a boat ride on the River, to have a better feeling of the plants and grain ship traffic.
At the end, travel 180 miles towards Ezeiza International Airport, Buenos Aires, to fly back to the USA.
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Anyone ever been on a farm tour to Argentina?
