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Brazil Study Tour 2010
- 1. North Carolina Agricultural Leadership Development Program 2008 - 2010 Brazil Study Tour
- 2. Agricultural Leadership Development Program Made possible by grants from
- 3. Agricultural Leadership Development Program and contributions from North Carolina Farm Bureau North Carolina Grange Mutual Insurance North Carolina Soybean Producers Association North Carolina State Grange Philip Morris International Bayer CropScience Cape Fear Farm Credit Carolina Farm Credit Corn Growers Association of North Carolina Golden Leaf Seed Company North Carolina Cotton Producers Association North Carolina Pork Council North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission YARA North America AgCarolina Financial North Carolina Small Grain Growers Association Program Participants
- 9. January 10, 2010
- 12. January 10, 2010
- 25. January 11, 2010
- 54. January 12, 2010
- 62. January 12, 2010
- 72. January 13, 2010
- 88. January 14, 2010
- 106. January 15, 2010
- 126. January 16 & 17, 2010
- 133. January 18, 2010
- 148. January 19, 2010
- 158. January 19, 2010
- 167. January 20, 2010
- 187. North Carolina Agricultural Leadership Development Program 2008 - 2010 Brazil Study Tour
Notas do Editor
- The flag of Brazil is green with a large yellow diamond in the centre bearing a blue celestial globe with 27 white five-pointed stars (one for each state and the Federal District) arranged in the same pattern as the night sky over Brazil; the globe has a white equatorial band with the motto ORDEM E PROGRESSO (Order and Progress). The yellow diamond represents the mineral wealth of Brazil and the green represents the rainforests.
- The NC Agricultural Leadership Program is a two year program with ten session across two years. The first set of classes started in October of 2008 and ended in February of 2009. We started again in October of 2009 and finished in February 0f 2010. The last two sessions involved our trip to Brazil and California. I will share with you what we did in Brazil.
- The trip provided us an opportunity to see how the agricultural community addressed issues they had as well as provided us with information for one of our major competitors in the world market for agricultural commodities. This presentation will allow me to give you a day by day account of our journey. Go with me as I share with you the sights, insights and lessons from Brazil.
- Our trip started in North Carolina for most of us, but some of us flew out of South Carolina, and Virginia where we all met together in Atlanta,Georgia to fly to Brazil. Our journey took us over 13,000 miles with about 12,000 miles by airplanes and slightly less than a 1000 miles by bus. The flight from Atlanta to Sao Paulo, Brazil was about 4600 miles and took between 9 to 10 hours of flying time.
- Our flight from Atlanta took us to Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sunday January 10 th .
- Our 12 day trip across Brazil was overseen by our very capable tour guide, Geraldine Dick. Her knowledge of Brazil and attention to detail made the journey pleasant, and informative. She met us at the airport in Sao Paulo to greet us and to start us off on our tour.
- This picture shows us after we have arrived in Brazil and were making preparation for our flight to Cuiaba. After landing in Cuiaba, we checked in to our motel and we met with a grain and cotton farmer from the province of Mato Grosso
- After landing in Cuiaba, we went to our motel and checked in to our motel. Afterwards, we met with a grain and cotton farmer from the province of Mato Grosso.
- Chris and Regina Ward shared a presentation on agriculture in Brazil as well as the province of Mato Grosso The next several slides are from their presentation.
- Slide from Chris Ward’s presentation with facts about Brazil’s agriculture
- Slide from Chris Ward’s presentation with facts about Brazil’s agriculture
- Slide from Chris Ward’s presentation with facts about Brazil’s agriculture
- Slide from Chris Ward’s presentation with facts about Brazil’s agriculture
- Slide from Chris Ward’s presentation with facts about Brazil’s agriculture
- Slide from Chris Ward’s presentation with facts about Brazil’s agriculture
- Slide from Chris Ward’s presentation with facts about Brazil’s agriculture
- On Monday, January 11, we went by bus to Campo Verde, but made a stop along the way at a national park in Chapada dos Guimarães. Chapada dos Guimarães is a county and a mountain range located in central Brazil, 62 km from the city of Cuiaba, the capital of Mato Grosso State. This range is surrounded by Brazilian savannas (also known as cerrado) and the Amazon rainforest. Many people travel to see the wildlife, waterfalls and canyons in the area.
- Scenes at Chapada dos Guimarães
- Scenes at Chapada dos Guimarães
- Scenes at Chapada dos Guimarães
- Leaving Chapada dos Guimaraes we continued on to Campo Verde, a town in the province of Mato Grosso.
- We saw many soybean fields on the way to Campo Verde.
- We saw several fields with equipment such as this high clearance sprayer in the soybean fields.
- In Campo Verde we met with the agronomist for Fazenda Maraba. Fazenda means farm in Portugese. This farm is 60,000 acres in size consisting of 3 properties. They grow corn, cotton, soybeans, and cattle as well as have 5,000.000 bushels of on-farm storage for grain and storage for cotton. THE MISSION STATEMENT FOR THE FARM IS: “THE DISTANCE BETWEEN A DREAM AND REALITY IS HARD WORK.”
- The owner is Jose Pupin. On the left is Wilson Yoshida, the agronomist for Fazenda Maraba. With Mr. Chris Ward as the interpreter, Wilson shared information about the farming operation and about how they grew soybeans. In 2009, they went 100% with Roundup Ready soybeans, but the province of Mato Grasso was at about 50% Roundy Ready soybeans. Their operation is 100% no-till and they do use cover crops. They average yield for soybeans is 50 bushels per acre. They use an average of 3 applications of fungicide applications to control soybean rust. They plant about 120,000 to 200,000 seeds per acre for soybeans. Their selling price for soybeans is about $8 to $9 bushel. The maturity of soybeans used in Mato Grasso are from Group 6’s to Group 8’s.
- Jay Williard, one of the Ag Leadership participants, looking at the soybeans on Fazenda Maraba.
- The planting window for soybeans in Mato Grasso is Sepember 15 th to December 10. On the Fazenda Maraba for the 2009 to 2010 crop, they started harvesting on January 10 th . On the farm, they currently grow 30,000 acres of soybeans, 15,000 acres of corn, 1200 acres of beans. 300 acres of rice and have 10,000 head of cattle.
- We made several stops on Fazenda Maraba learning about the operation and seeing many sights.
- On the farm they have a 3 stand cotton gin
- Bales of cotton on Fazenda Maraba.
- This is the storage facility for cotton seed on Fazenda Maraba. .
- Farm worker regulations and rights are important in Brazil. The blue tag verifies that this cotton has been produced with workers that are managed according to certain guidelines
- As for other farm worker regulations, the farmer must provide a place for the people to wash their hands and to eat such, which this trailer provides. Also the farmers can not worker their laborers over so many hours each week. Farms with over 150 employees have to have a nurse on the farm. Social responsibility is a big concern within the agricultural community in Brazil.
- The buildings seen here are housing for single males on Fazenda Maraba, where farm workers stayed during the week. They go home for the weekend end, They go home for the weekend end, Many of the larger farms provide recreational areas, churches, and dining halls.
- Often we would see Emus out in the fields, Emus are native to Brazil. We were told that they did not feed on the soybeans, but ate insects in the fields. (Fazenda Maraba)
- Combines on Fazenda Maraba sitting still until it is dry enough to continue the harvesting of soybeans.
- On the Fazenda Maraba, they had one shelter with about 17 4 row cotton pickers that you see here.
- Chris Ward talks with Daniel Fowler and Manley Stovall about the soils. In the areas of Brazil that we visited, the topography was generally rollnig like the western part of the NC piedmont such as Rowan, Iredell counties. Also the soils were generally well drained and brown to orangish red in color.
- On Fazenda Maraba, they raise much of the food for the workers such as rice you see here. They raise about 300 acres of rice for their workers.
- Also, the papaya trees shown here are food for the workers as well as pineapples growing close by.
- After the tour of Fazenda Maraba, we were treated to refreshments consisting of various types of breads and beverage
- The group relaxes and has lunch in Campo Verde and then head off to see a cooperative.
- Our next stop was a cooperative for growers that produce grain an cotton.
- There are 20 cotton growers in the cotton coopeative, CooperFibra. The cooperative initially was involved in just ginning and marketing the cotton lint, but now have plans to make fiber and eventually cloth. There is less freight involved in shipping fiber or cloth than raw cotton fiber. The cotton gin operates 4 to 5 months out of the year.
- The cooperative handled 12 million bushesl in 2009.
- The granary is set up to handle many types of trucks. Here is a truck with soybeans that are being unloaded. A short haul would be 300 miles and a long haul could be as much as 1100 miles. Of the total cost to produce a bushel of soybeans, 40% of the cost is transportation.
- This ground silo holds 2.5 bushels of soybeans.
- Inside of the 2.5 million bushel ground silo.
- The energy source for drying the grain at this granary is wood, which is true of most if not all farms in Brazil. The primary tree used is Eucalyptus because it is adapted to their environment and grows very fast.
- On Tuesday, January 12 th , we first went to a farm outside of Primavera do Leste
- On the left is Chris Ward, one of our guides and interpreter. In the middle is the owner of the farm and on the right is Dale Hill, one of the leaders of the tour group. The farmer grew cattle, cotton, corn and soybeans on 20,000 acres of land. They have an average of 42 people that work on the farm. When he moved to this location 30 years ago, he moved his family on a semi-trailer.
- The farmer currently had 5000 head of cattle on the farm. The primary forage crop is different species of Brachiarias. He sells his cattle to a local slaughterhouse. There are 6 major slaughterhouses within 200 miles of him. Seventy percent of the beef produced in Brazil is consumed domestically with the fine cuts going to Europe and the rest to the Middle East or China.
- Harvesting of soybeans was being delayed by rain. His average soybean yield runs in the middle to upper 50’s. Last year his average soybean yield was 56 bushels per acre and this year it will be better. The farmer said that the old John Deere without the cab in this picture was used to clean up the short rows and corner in fields and was a reminder to him to keep his other combined maintained properly so he did not have to it the old combine much.
- Here is an old Ford that he had under his shelter with his tractors.
- At a cottage by the river on the farm, the farmer did a question and answer session. Among the things he shared was that there were many labor regulations that the Brazilian farmers had to abide by. Also the cost of money, interest on money borrowed, was a big expense. Also cooperatives are big In Brazil, with 60% of the farmers being members of a cooperative.. By being a member of some group that represents the farmers as well as provides leadership, the farmers had a voice in the political arena.
- During the discussions, it was said that in Mato Grosso the acres of cropland could be doubled by taking land out of pastures. Also, bartering is conducted within the agricultural community with soybeans used like money. One example of bartering is that growers that lease land pay their landlords in bushels of soybeans.
- Here is the group on the patio by the river posing for a picture before leaving Fazenda Luciana.
- Our next stop was to a cattle farm near Jaciara.
- A major landmark that we passed was Morrow do Bau or Chest Mountain. It stood high above other features on the landscape.
- The beef cattle farm we visited was Chic Pauliceia,
- After arriving at the beef farm the bus got stuck and the driver had to seek the assistance of the rancher’s helpers to get it out.
- The owner, Francisco, has a herd of 115 cattle that is used for producing purebred animals. They use technologies such as artificial insemination and embryo transplant The breed of cattle is Nelore.
- The Nelore is of the Zebu breed of cattle. This breed of cattle tolerates the heat well such as that of Brazil. The extra skin of this breed allows it to tolerate the hot climate. European breeds such as the Hereford or Angus do not do well in Brazil, but some of these breeds have been crossed with Nelore. Eighty percent of the cattle in Brazil are of the Nelore breed.
- Here are some of the bulls from his herd.
- Next to the show barn was a banana tree.
- Near the end of our visit, Francisco provided us with refreshments at his outdoor grill and dining area.
- Adam Lassiter as well as many others of the group enjoyed some of the very strong coffee in small cups. It does not take much of their coffee to refresh you.
- From Jaciara we traveled back by bus to Cuiaba to visit a biodiesel plant.
- Cooperbio is a cooperative with the members being farmers. The plant produces 90,000 gallons of biodiesel/day or 793,000 gallons/year.
- The process used to make biodiesel from soybeans is that the soybean oil is combined with sodium hydroxide, which is a catalyst, and an alcohol such as methanol or ethanol to produce biodiesel and glycerine. They use mostly soybeans to make the biodiesel, but can use up to 50% cotton in the biodiesel blend. Glycerin is one of the byproducts from producing biodiesel, but the price for glycerine is cheap
- Here we are in the control room for the biodiesel plant.
- Here are some of the equipment inside the plant
- These are the storage tanks for the finished prouduct
- These trucks are used in hauling the biodiesel from the plant.
- The president of Cooperbio shared information with the group about how they sell the biodiesel to Petrobras, which then blends it with petroleum diesel to produce a B4 (4% biodiesel to 96% petroleum diesel).
- From the biodiesel cooperative, we went to Famato that is comparable to our Extension service. Famato focuses on agricultural production, the environment, workers’ rights and other social issues. It was here we also meet with Acrimat and Aprosoja, which is their beef cattle producers association and soybean and corn producers association.
- This is Cid Sanchez, planning manager for Aprosoja. (The next several slides will be some from his presentation).
- Slides from Aprosoja presentation.
- Slides from Aprosoja presentation
- Slides from Aprosoja presentation
- They have a checkoff program and the R$ 0,0516 per 60 kg is equivalent to about 1 and ½ cetnts per bushel..
- This table shows the distribution of soybean production across Brazil and the percentages of total production for each province. Also, on the right side of table is the total production of soybeans by hectares and million tons across years.
- From Cuiaba we flew to Porto Alegre for a little over 1,000 miles. From Port Alegre we traveled by bus to Santa Cruz do Sul which is in the southern most part of Brazil, and is in the province of Rio Grande de Sul.
- On Thursday, January 14 th , we first visited Universal Leaf Tobacco.
- Universal Corporation headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, was founded in 1918. The largest portion of the company's business involves the procurement, processing, packing, and supply of flue-cured and burley tobacco to manufacturers of consumer tobacco products. Universal does not manufacture cigarettes or other consumer products. Most of the Company's revenues are derived from sales of processed tobacco and from fees and commissions for specific services. Universal conducts its business in more than 30 countries and employees over 24,000 permanent and seasonal workers. The doormat in this slide is of the entrance to their buying and processing facility. (The next several slides will be from their presentation.)
- (Slides from Universal Leaf Tobacco.) Picture of facility we visited
- (Slides from Universal Leaf Tobacco.) In 2008 – 2009 crop year, Brazil produced 774 thousand tons of tobacco with most of it coming from the southern region of Brazil. Brazil is the second largest grower of tobacco in the world as seen on the left and first in the world in the exporting of tobacco.
- (Slides from Universal Leaf Tobacco.) This slides shows where Brazil exports their tobacco.
- (Slides from Universal Leaf Tobacco.) This slide shows the profile of a typical grower.
- (Slides from Universal Leaf Tobacco.) After getting to see the purchasing and processing facility, we had the opportunity to tour their research facility.
- Universal leaf is involved in the development of new varieties of tobacco that meets the needs of their growers while providing the quality that their customers need. This is inside their facility where seeds are dried before be processed for distribution.
- After viewing their facility, a group picture was taken in front of the research facility.
- That evening Universal Leaf Tobacco provided our group with a wonderful evening of delicious food and entertainment.
- A typical Brazilian meal will include cuts of meat that have been grilled over an open fire such as these cuts of beef.
- This is how the cuts of meat are grilled on the skewers over an open fire.
- Brandon Marshall, whose family owns and operates a restaurant in Englehard poses in front of the grill.
- This is the food set up for the meal for the evening. In addition to the meats there were various vegetables and fruits served.
- The meats are served by waiters from the skewers with a knife and are placed on a small plate to the side of your dinner plate which has your side dishes.
- After the meal, entertainment was provided that included music and dancers dressed in the traditional attire. The men are gauchos. Gaucho is a term commonly used to describe residents of the South American grasslands found principally in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Chile, and southern Brazil. In Brazil, it is also used to designate people from the state of Rio Grande do Su l . The gaucho are comparable to the North American cowboy although you can see that the attire was different from our cowboys.
- Here the gauchos have their "facón“, a large knife generally tucked into the rear of the gaucho sash. Historically, the facón was typically the only eating instrument that a gaucho carried., but could also be used as a weapon
- The gauchos and their female partners went into the audience to get people to participate in the festivities. Here is Jennifer Johnson being accompanied by a gaucho.
- On Friday January 15 th we were then hosted by Alliance One.
- Alliance One International is a independent leaf tobacco merchant serving cigarette manufacturers. The company was formed on May 13, 2005, as a result of the merger of DIMON Incorporated and Standard Commercial Corporation, both involved in tobacco processing. Alliance One selects, purchases, processes, packs, stores, and ships leaf tobacco. In certain developing markets, they also provide agronomy expertise and financing for the growing of leaf tobacco. Alliance One neither manufactures nor sells cigarettes or other consumer tobacco products. Alliance One's global headquarters is located in Raleigh , North Carolina
- We met representatives of Alliance One at their training facility. Among the things that they shared with us was that tobacco was very important to the economy in this part of Brazil. Three companies have 75% of the tobacco market in Brazil. Other smaller companies in Brazil just buy tobacco. They also said that customers that buy their tobacco want to know first, what are their agronomic recommendations, second, the human standards of people producing the tobacco, and then they want to see the tobacco before negotiating prices. Before going into the field, we were told that the farms we would see were like tobacco farms in the United States 50 years ago.
- Alliance One representatives took us to two growers farms. One was a small grower using very little mechanization and the other was a larger grower. In this picture are some of the smaller farmer’s equipment. The farmers name is Jaco Sehnem. His farm was about 7 acres in size with about 3 acres in tobacco production. They hire no extra labor.
- These are the oxen that the Jaco used. Their names are Charcoal and Happy. He bought them in Europe. A pair of trained oxen will cost about $2500.
- Worker protection is very important among all growers in Brazil. This poster that deals with pesticide safety was under Jaco’s tobacco barn shelter.
- The farmer did have electricity which he used to power his tobacco stringer. This version of stringer had the table stationary and the grower pushed the stringer across the tobacco that was on the stick to be sewn.
- The farmer used bamboo for tobacco sticks.
- Other technology that this farmer used was the control unit for monitoring and controlling the curing and yellowing process of tobacco.
- An Alliance One representative is discussing how tobacco is graded in the field at the time of harvest and is placed on the stick with tobacco of similar grades before being cured. The farmer harvested his crop from 5 stalk positions. The harvest season had just been completed in the last week or so (end of December). Last year he produced 3100 pounds per acre and this year he produced 2300 pounds per acre. Too much rain this year hurt the crop.
- The farmers home on the right is attached to the tobacco barn on the left.
- Shown here is Cassava, which s an important food crop to the people of Brazil and was in this farmers garden. It is native to South America and is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates. The flour made of the roots is called tapioca. Cassava is the third largest source of carbohydrates for human food in the world.
- This is the part of the cassava plant which is used. It grows underground like a sweetpotato.
- Next, we visited a larger farmer that grew tobacco for Alliance One whose name was Nilo. His farm was 50 acres in size with about half of it used in raising tobacco. He will start planting in August and will start harvesting about November. He does have a Massey Ferguson 275 to work his crop.
- Here is Nilo with his son.
- Some of the equipment that Nilo uses.
- Nilo grows his plants on a floating system on his farm and clips his plants using a guitar string attached on either end by a rubber hose. The plants are placed in this rack one tray at a time and the string is stretched above the tray and allowed to recoil toward the ground while cutting the tops of the plants off.
- This is some of Nilo’s tobacco that was being prepared for the market. It was beautiful and had a pleasant aroma. While we were there, one of Nilo’s workers was tying the tobacco into bundles. Although it was still being practiced in Brazil, Alliance One representatives said that the practice would not likely be continued many more years.
- These are members of our group that grow tobacco that wanted their picture taken with Brazilian tobacco.
- This is Nilo’s house which was well kept and very attractive. He also had a garage on the house for his car.
- On the afternoon of Friday, January 15 th , we boarded a plane in Porto Alegre for a one hour flight to Florianopolis, which is in the province of Santa Catarina on the Atlantic coastline of Brazil.
- While in Florianopolis, we had the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful beaches. Although there were sandy beaches, mountains were not far away.
- If you wanted to learn how to surf, they had a school (escola) for it on the beach.
- There were many vendors on the beaches selling their products. This young man was selling hats.
- Beach volleyball is also popular in Brazil.
- In Florianpolis, vendors were allowed to set up stands along the streets. These men are off loading pineapples to a stand.
- Here is what the pineapple stand looked like.
- On Sunday afternoon, we took a flight out of Florianopolis to Campinas. From Campinas, we went by bus to the town of Piracicaba. On Monday, January 18, we visited the one of the oldest agricultural schools in the province of Sao Paulo, ESALQ-USP.
- In 1892, Luiz de Queiroz donated his farm, called São João da Montanha, to the Government of the State of São Paulo. His aim was to establish a school of agriculture or an institute dedicated to the education of professionals in agriculture. The State Government committed to establish an agricultural school within 10 years. Student enrollment started on the first of May, 1901, the school was opened and classes began on the third of June with eleven students. In 1931, the School was renamed Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ), in honor of its idealizer. From 1901 to 1934, the college functioned under the São Paulo State Department of Agriculture. In 1934 it was integrated into the University of São Paulo (USP) as its College of Agriculture.
- While we were at ESALQ-USP, we met exchanged students that from Ohio.
- This beautiful stained glass depicts the important crops of Brazil. While at university we also hearded presentations on renewable fuels.
- After leaving the University of Sao Paulo, we toured a plant owned by Cosan that produces sugar and ethanol from sugar cane.
- In addition to the plant we were at, Cosan has 23 processing facilities, 38 fuel distribution terminals, 2 port terminals and employees 43,000 people during harvest.
- This is a truck that is loaded with sugar.
- Sugar cane is planted by cuttings in the ground that are covered with rows about 4 feet apart. Sugar cane is a ratoon crop meaning that it is harvested and it puts out new growth for the next crop. It is harvested once a year over 5 to 7 years. In the past, sugar cane was harvested by hand and to assist in the hand harvesting, the fields were burned to remove the fodder. There is a transition to mechanical harvesting that does away with the need for burning.
- Of the total biomass harvested, 13% of it is sugar. As for ethanol production from sugar cane, it has a favorable energy balance, varying from 8.3:1 for average conditions to 10.2:1 for best practice production. This means that for average conditions one unit of fossil-fuel energy is required to create 8.3 energy units from the resulting ethanol. Energy balance figures for corn is 1.5:1 and for wind is 30:1.
- From the Cosan sugar plant, we went to he Instituto Agronômico de Campinas (Agronomical Institute of Campinas -- IAC). It is a research and development institution in the city of Campinas. It is the oldest institution of its kind in Latin America.
- IAC does research on many crops such as coffee sugar cane, corn soybeans, wheat, grapes, plum, various vegetables and rubber.
- We went to one of IAC’s research centers, Central Experimental Center.
- Here is one of IAC’s employees showing us a rubber tree and how the rubber is collected.
- Here is a picture of the container that catches the latex material that comes from the rubber plant. The tree trunk has to be cut to allow the rubber to flow out of the bark.
- She also showed us work that was being conducted on coffee. Here are the cherries of the coffee plant, which contain the coffee beans.
- On Tuesday, January 19, we go to a coffee farm outside of Campinas. This farm is owned by the Mitsubishi Group.
- The name of the coffee plantation is Fazenda Tozan Do Brasil
- Here are coffee trees in rows. On this farm, coffee trees will be productive for about 15 years. There are two types of coffees, Arabica and Robusta
- These are coffee trees that have been cut back to regrow a new tree from which additional crops of coffee beans will be harvested in the future.
- This is a coffee harvester.
- These are vats in which the coffee cherries are soaked before being dried.
- This is an asphalt yard on which the coffee cherries are placed for drying. The pulp is removed and the beans are processed.
- This machine sorts the coffee beans into different sizes.
- Here are coffee beans ready for shipping to companies that will roast and further process them. The beans are light green in color before roasting.
- After the tour, we went to their gift shop to purchase items and to enjoy some coffee.
- From Fazenda Tozan we went to Sao Paulo to a terminal market.
- Here are some of the large buildings in Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo is the third largest city in the world with 22 million people
- In Sao Paulo, we visited a terminal market CEAGESP, which is owned by the state of Sao Paulo. It is the third largest terminal market in the world with Hunts Point in New York being the largest.
- Much of the products at CEAGESP are moved by hand carts such as the one seen here. We saw very few forklifts.
- The young man here wanted his picture taken. Here he is with carrots and sweet potatoes.
- This business specialized in pineapples which were stacked with layers of dried grass between them.
- This is a load of coconuts.
- There were many fruits an vegetables on display at the market such as these.
- Here we are walking through the terminal market. It was large and very busy.
- On Wednesday,January 20 th , we first visited a vegetable farm outside of Sao Paulo.
- The name of the grower was Mr. Hasegawa who is Japanese. This farm is the largest producer of lettuce in Brazil and has been in business for 50 years. One of the things that they have implemented is traceability of their products. In fact, traceability was something mentioned by all types of growers in Brazil including grain farmers.
- Mr Hasegawa raises 90% of what he sells with the other 10% coming from other local growers.
- This green house covers 4.5 to 5 acres of land and has drip irrigation.
- We were allowed in the the packing house, but to prevent contamination we had to put on hair netting.
- All of the vegetables are cleaned and disinfected. Notice how all the workers have hair netting. Many different vegetables were being packed in this facility.
- Items that received further processing were cleaned and packaged in an enclosed area with the temperature kept much cooler.
- Our last stop was at a tractor factory outside of Sao Paulo. The mother company is AGCO. The brand is Valtra and was formerly Valmet. Valmet was a brand originally out of Finland.
- We were taken through the assembly line for engines.
- This is a view of the assembly line for cabs.
- The goal of the plant is to build a total of 55 tractors per day from 3 shifts.
- Here is one of the tractors from the factory.
- After leaving the tractor factory, Lanny Hass, one of our instructors for the Agricultural Leadership Development Program over the last two years, did a farewell presentation to our tour guide Geraldine Dick
- Also, Lanny said farewell to Dale Hill who also helped make the tour of Brazil quite enjoyable.
- Here is all of the members of the NC Agriucltural Leadership Development Program that toured Brazil.
- Obrigadao is Portugese for thank you, and I do thank you for allowing me to share my sights, experiences, and lessons learned from Brazil as a member of the 2008 – 2010 class of the North Carolina Agricultural Leadership Development Program.