“Today” on my Chile adventure is Wednesday, January 8. As most of you know, one goal of this trip is to assess the potential for a Progressive Dairy Operators’ tour next winter. In that context, the lesson today is that touring this long and narrow country will involve substantial road time. Bastian and I spent more time in the car than out of it today as we travelled 420 km south on Highway 5, a modern 4 lane road comparable to the 401 back home. The road time was an opportunity to learn more about Ancali. They currently have Herd Navigator on 8 robots with a goal to assess its cost benefit. When Navigator first came out in Canada, I was curious to learn if “cycling cows with silent heats” or cows it flags that pedometers do not, would get pregnant. Looking at farm data, I found that many do conceive, so even well managed herds should see some improvement in repro with this technology. But Navigator does have a substantial operating cost. With 8 robots with Navigator and 64 without, Ancali management are in a great position to assess cost benefit and if PDO visits next year, we may see the results.

Travelling through Temuca we made a quick stop at Granja Llamas Del Sur. If we tour, this could be a “general interest lunch stop”, and perhaps a lesson in “making lemonade”. This small farm was internationally known as a source of breeding stock when llama breeding was of commercial interest. When the bubble burst, owner Alejandra von Baer found new income by making the farm an “animal experience” destination, ranging from petting zoo activities to medically based “animal therapy”.

Dairying in this area is pasture based and focussed on low cost. Bastian shared that indigenous land claims have made land owners here cautious about investing, so they feed only pasture, and milk in the field with low cost mobile “parlors”.

Further south, we visited “Fundo la Invernada”, a fairly new venture raising Holstein bull calves on grass. 4,500 Holstein bull calves per year arrive here at 1 week of age. The calves in the picture are raised on milk replacer to 50 days and housed and fed grain to 100 days before going to full pasture feeding to 180 days of age. At that point, they are moved to a family owned 15,000 head feedlot further north for finishing. Much like in Canada, bull calves are cheap (average price was about $16 Canadian) and margins are tight but this farm has found reliable additional income. At 400 kg, these intact bulls are rented out for 2 days for $120 to perform in Chile’s wildly popular, national sport, the “Chilean Rodeo”. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR_frf9R2uw . I don’t pretend to know the rules but trained riders on trained horses score points cutting and herding these young bulls, and apparently Holsteins are ideal for this. Demand exceeds supply so they plan to expand beyond the 4,500 calves they raise now, mostly to meet demand for rodeo bulls.

We ended our day In Orsono, in the heart of the main dairy area of Chile. Dinner here is rarely before 8:00 p.m., usually involves large servings of excellent local beef or salmon, and some very good wine. When dinner ends at 11:00 p.m., I have no energy to write a blog . . .and that is one of the reasons you are reading about my January trip in mid February!

these calves will be Chilean rodeo bulls when they reach 400 Kg

Chile's national sport . . .Chilean Rodeo