ARGENTINA: Ranchers struggle to hold on to cattle heritage as many turn to more profitable markets such as soy farming

Record ID: 446819

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Ranchers struggle to hold on to cattle heritage as many turn to more profitable markets such as soy farming
  • Date: 7th September 2008
  • Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FILE) (REUTERS) TRACTORS MOVING ALONG FARM FIELDS FARM FIELDS VARIOUS OF SOY BEING PROCESSED BY MACHINE TRACTORS ON FARM FIELDS CLOSE UP OF CROP IN FARM FIELDS
  • Embargoed: 22nd September 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA6XT69YZ443RO80ITJDH727PF1
  • Story Text: In the rambling corrals at Argentina's biggest cattle market, breeding cows are being sold for slaughter in ever greater numbers, raising fears about the survival of the country's famous ranching heritage.
    Argentina is a leading beef exporter and Argentines eat more steak than anyone else in the world -- nearly 152 pounds (69 kilogrammes) per year, according to the Argentine Beef Promotion Institute (IPCVA), compared with the 95 pounds (43 kilogrammes) eaten by the average American.
    But ranchers are selling off female animals to give up their herds and move into more profitable activities, such as soy farming.
    The number of female cows, as opposed to male steer, being slaughtered has jumped over the last two years. Government figures show cows now account for half the cattle being sold for consumption, up from 40 percent in 2006.
    And while it's difficult for ranchers to walk away from all the incentives to sell off their herds, they are expressing frustration over selling off cows that are still capable of breeding.
    "Of the cows that are being sold, 80 percent are pregnant, cows that in another time wouldn't be sold off. On the contrary, they were put aside to produce, to generate calves, and now they're being sold," said Jose Luis Usandizaga, a trustee of the Liniers Market in Buenos Aires.
    Beef is an everyday staple in Argentina, even for the poor, prompting the centre-left administration to adopt tough measures to try to tame rising steak prices, such as setting maximum prices and heavily restricting exports.
    Fed up with government intervention, many ranchers have turned their fields over to crops such as soybeans, wheat and corn to take advantage of soaring international prices.
    And ranchers are mindful of the calculations, even if they spell obvious doom for the country's cattle ranching heritage.
    "Farms dedicated to milk production are being sold to soy producers. They talk of 10,000 dollars per hectare. And so why would a milk producer continue milking cows when they'll pay him a fortune for his land?" Usandizaga also said.
    Argentina's farmers staged four months of protests over government farming policy earlier this year, paralyzing grains markets periodically and refusing to send livestock to market.
    Tensions eased after President Cristina Fernandez scrapped an export tax hike on soy in July, but the farmers have staged tractor protests along rural roads in recent weeks, calling for policies to boost profits in the beef and dairy sectors.
    And some industry analysts say the country could soon be forced to import beef for the first time -- something unthinkable in a nation famed for its tender, grass-fed beef raised on the Pampas plains.
    "This killing off of the offspring and the high consumption we have, an estimated 75 kilogrammes per inhabitant at this time, brings us to a point that by 2010 or 2011, we most likely won't be able to satisfy our internal demand. This means that our country which is a naturally exporting country, primarily a meat-exporting country, would convert into an importer of that prime material," said Alfredo Rodes, the president of the Argentine Rural Association of Buenos Aires and La Pampa Provinces.
    How the transformation in Argentina's agricultural sector will affect the national identity remains to be seen. But the cattle-based industry and barbecue and grill cuisine so closely tied to Argentine culture may fall by the wayside, leaving a vacuum for new identities and industries.
    "The breeder who sells his product once per year doesn't have a good price for calf-breeding, so he will directly cease efficient production, and start to give up on cows to dedicate himself to other activities,"
    Rodes said, referring to the choice of not allowing a new generation of cows to develop so as to sell off herds.
    The changes are also raising environmental questions. The readying of the Argentine farmland for soy requires a clearing of trees, which is often carried out by burning techniques. And in the case of Argentina's northern provinces, like Salta, where the climate is warmer and therefore more fertile for soy production, deforestation is an inevitable consequence.
    Many, however, credit Argentina's recovery from its 2001/2002 economic crisis to its taking advantage of the commodities boom and becoming a soy-exporting nation, through ports like Rosario in the central Argentine province of Santa Fe.
    Amid all the challenges for a national industry in transition, newly appointed Agriculture Secretary Carlos Cheppi has vowed to "find solutions to the real problems" faced by Argentine ranchers. But analysts say it will be hard to please both ranchers and steak-loving consumers.
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