Monday January 6th
I have been told that the first rule of blogging is to post new stuff frequently and in a timely manner. So here on my third morning on the ground in Chile I am already a day and a half late with my first post from South America. Sunday night’s 10 ½ hour flight from Toronto to Santiago went well despite a 1 hour delay in Toronto. The time here is just two hours later than back home and I have discovered that jet lag is a time zone issue and no big deal when travelling straight south.  

Our Chilean travel agent, Terry Reagan, a 90 lb ball of energy that is going to be a great asset for next year’s PDO tour, had three stops planned for Monday and despite the late start we got them all in. From Santiago to the coast there are several fertile valleys that produce an impressive variety of agricultural products. Dairy has always been part of the mix, but it seems that wine, citrus, and fresh market vegetables generate more revenue per hectare than corn and alfalfa fed to dairy cows, so the number of dairy herds is declining. But the two large dairies we visited were both investing in new assets and they seemed committed to a fure in dairying. These herds milked 1300 and 1500 Holsteins that will match any herd in Canada for size, functional type and milk production. At Alpro Dairy operated by dairy economist Guillermo Jimenez the 1370 cows milking were at 42 kg milk at 3.7 fat on 3x milking in two olders side by side double 16 herringbone parlors. At 290 pesos per liter with volume and quality bonuses in, the milk price in Canadian dollars is roughly 50 cents a litre. A milker earns roughly $1500 per month  so both costs and income are lower than back home. The climate here is very dry and Alpro dairy uses that to advantage with a very simple manure system that flushes the alleys with manure liquids, separates solids by gravity and uses the sun to dry the solids for near odourless storage and easy field application. This dairy is switching from freestall barns to simple shelters with a bedding pack that is tilled daily to keep it dry. Each pack barn has two tilled dirt yards nearby that cows use on alternate nights which are also tilled the next day and left to dry. No bedding is used now but in winter sawdust will be added to aid drying. Cows were clean and comfortable in the first two barns of this new design. Guillermo is weighing his options for either a new rotary or robots in the next few years. Our other dairy stop, Kingston Dairy made the rotary choice a year ago and is now milking 1500 cows in 10 groups of 150 in a 60 stall rotary platform built by a Madera, a company from Mexico. 4 people per shift are milking 320 cows per hour at 44 Kg milk per cow 3x. This herd also raises all it’s replacements on site. The low cost of housing cattle in this climate is pretty obvious when you see heifers and dry cows outside with no shelter and fence line feeding completely outside year round. Our third stop was a winery with a great view over the valley, also owned by the Kingston family.  I’ll share more on Chilean wine in my next blog tomorrow.  

 

The new barns at Alpro used tilled manure packs combined with outside resting areas used at night