His rations change daily according to available feedstuffs like citrus pulp, brewers grains, sorghum silage and other by-products of the area. He is milking 130 cows and turning 27,000 broilers six times a year. I visit a research farm where new legumes and rotational grazing are being introduced and gains are recorded by electronic ID tags in intact bulls. Acid soils there, in some instances, require up to 3 tons of lime an acre a year. Gains are measured in grams per day, a far cry from the 5-plus pounds per day that cattle at the Iowa Beef Expo achieve.
New technology is slow in developing in Brazil, at least at the grassroots level.
An Extension service to farmers, as we know it in the States, is seemingly nonexistent except to the very few. Companies with a vested interest are rapidly filling in the knowledge gap. A land of the haves and have-nots Brazil is a land of contrasts, wealth and poverty with a narrowing middle class, abundant natural resources, yet lagging technology. Seemingly it is a slower paced country, Americanized by McDonald's and Coke, names this Portuguese-speaking country recognizes as well as I do. Most confusing is the measures of kilos, hectares, kilometers, centimeters, and grams.