Your Salad Lunches Are Killing American Leather

 

"Diets and droughts have made cattle hide more expensive, creating a leather shoelace crisis"

This is exactly what happened to the leather industry in Argentina after our drought in 2008-9.

(From Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-05-27/your-salad-lunches-are-killing-american-leather

"A Cook Abroad"

A little teaser from the BBC series, "A Cook Abroad."  I got to play a small part in the Argentina episode and I'm really pleased at how it turned out.

I even ended up on camera for a few minutes!

MasterChef John Torode really got the feel of preparing and eating good Argentine beef. I was with them all the way to Mendoza and I was astounded at their professionalism and attention to detail.

It's too bad that this series is so difficult to view outside the UK ...but here's a little teaser.  The episode really gives an accurate idea of the state of Argentine beef.

Please let me know if you find an easy way to view this series outside the UK.

Argentina Running out of Options

(from Soberlook.com)

The old saw, "the taxes on the farmer feeds us all" has never been truer than right here, right now in Argentina.

This is basically an agrarian nation with some impressive industrial capacity.  Make no mistake, however, agriculture pays the bills.

Although the opposite view persists, the chickens are coming home to roost.  During the past few years of extraordinary grain prices, Argentina has been able to heavily tax grain exports in order to fund general revenues.  Soy and corn exports are taxed at 35% of the sale price ...without regard to what expenses were required to produce those grains (beef exports, when allowed, are taxed at 15%.)

Now, the demand for soy and corn has declined ...and this is reflected in its price.  This presents some big problems for a nation that has grown accustomed to financing programs with the proceeds of agriculture.

That might not have been such a big issue had farmers and ranchers and dairy producers felt free to invest their profits into their operations and expand them.

As it is, no agricultural person is investing in expanding their business.  The current decline in grain prices is making this even worse.

If we were truly an industrial nation, we could weather this storm without much trouble.  However, the denial that our exports are mainly agricultural leads to problems that could take years to reverse.

As a socialist, I could never advocate exporting food from the plates of my fellow countrymen for private profit and national revenue ...but to kill the geese that laid the golden eggs here in this beautiful land for so long seems a ridiculous recipe.

Argentina needs the expansion of agriculture here more than ever.  The world needs the expansion of Argentine agriculture more than ever.

Left to our own devices, we ag-types will over-produce ourselves into the poor house.  If, however, buying a new pick-up or going on vacation makes more sense than buying a new tractor or artificially inseminating ...it won't be just us farmers/ranchers who will suffer in the long-term.

Yanqui Mike on the BBC

What a great way to spend a month during which my missus and I were rained out of our ranch!

Since about mid-August, I've been an assistant on a BBC documentary, thanks to a referral from Angela of San Telmo Loft (since the crew was staying with San Telmo Loft, I had the opportunity to comfortably lounge around a couple of her properties ...they are wonderful and everything Angela says they are.)

The documentary which is yet untitled devotes its eventual one hour to the state of Argentine beef and eventually ended in Mendoza for a peek at the best drink to accompany a great grass-fed steak (if you can find one, that is.)

What started out as research, turned into an on-camera appearance at the Liniers Stockyards with the host/presenter, John Torode of BBC Masterchef fame ...wherein yer Yanq gets to hold forth from a rancher's perspective.

Then, it all morphed into my traveling with the crew from Buenos Aires to the wine country of Mendoza ...clocking more than 1600 miles round-trip in three vehicles.  Whew.  Those BBC guys are a hard working bunch.

Along with the crew were two local seasoned TV pros, Lalo Lema and Wendy Mata, who both informed me that they had never seen the likes of the production values and professionalism and generosity of spirit shown by the BBC crew.  I was impressed ...but I had nothing in my experience to compare it to.

As for the BBC crew: Richard Sharman, Director; Leila Finikarides, Assistant Producer; Andrew Muggleton, Cameraman Extraordinaire; & Ian Eason, Sound Artist ...I cannot say enough.  Through all the sweat and grunting effort to make the shoot real and worthy of the BBC's standards, every effort was made toward harmony throughout the team ...and what a team it was to watch in action.

The brutal slog to Mendoza and back (once for their recce and once for filming!) could have been unbearable ...but it was a pleasure although a hard-won one.

God, how I wish I had more photos of the wrap party!  Well, we were all too busy to take very many, if you know what I mean.

Dick Sharman, BBC Director

A Little Patagonia in the Night

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/09/the-entrepreneur-who-wants-to-save-paradise/380116/

“A world-class tourism destination takes a world-class brand,” replied Lehner, a 26-year-old Harvard graduate with dark hair and a chic summer style I wasn’t used to seeing in Aysén: colored jeans and tucked-in tank tops. “It’s not what some guy in Cochrane would suggest. I don’t think Yellowstone’s success was based on what locals thought about it 10 years in.”

 Not exactly like Rockefeller. Philanthopy or meddling, indeed.  You be the judge.

One Millon Gardens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP_FpLJ5uuI

http://www.onemilliongardens.com  I like this.

Best DIY Chicken Coop Video Evah

This actually could be the best youtube instructional video ever.  It probably should be a required course for anyone thinking about doing ANY youtube video of any kind!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTt5OsR8qBQ

No music, no narration.  It really has made watching all other instructional vids very difficult for me ...and that's a damned shame!  Because you Northern Hemisphere types are putting your home & garden project to bed for a long winter's nap ...and I have to get started on a butt-load of projects (yep, a chicken coop is one of them.)

I wish I'd found this last.

Hey!  Tell me!  Is this video strictly "guy" territory ...or do women appreciate this just as much?

Is there a Cowspiracy?

 

I just watched the movie Cowspiracy.  I liked it a lot.  I recommend it to you.

That might surprise you ...the film is anti-beef and ends up anti-animal eating in general.

It's got some flaws.  Although the film is from 2014, it's working from some old, somewhat discredited data as regards grass-fed beef ...but on the whole it really does a good job.

 

It's especially good at pointing out the confusion that any sane person experiences when trying to look into factory farming and the mega-agro-industry for the first time.  I really can relate to that from both sides of the fence.

It compares "apples to oranges" only briefly (although prominently) and fails on arithmetic once or twice ...but the 90 minute running-time is worthy of your attention and efforts like this should be encouraged by anyone who loves both food and the planet.  The film makers were brave.

You may agree or disagree with its conclusions ...but you won't consider it a waste of your time.  In fact, I think you'll join me in welcoming a good, strong, young voice to the debate.

Eat less meat ...raise more hell!  Go get the film and watch it.

http://www.cowspiracy.com

I Like to Read: ModernFarmer.com

I like to read Modern Farmer and I think that you might, too.

Why would YOU like to read a magazine/website called Modern Farmer?  If for no other reason than YOU like to eat.  Another reason could be that you like to eat well and know where your food comes from.

If your hungers and curiousities lead a bit farther, you might want to know what it is like for those who produce your food.  If so, ModernFarmer.com is a great use of your reading/browsing time.

The site is as reader-friendly to those who produce ...as to those who consume.

Personally, I've been startled on many occasions lately as to how much of my reading comes from people who have been involved in food production for even fewer years than I have!  That really shouldn't surprise me; eaters have always been ahead of producers.  Without that, producers fail to produce what eaters want.

I guess where the surprising thing about ModernFarmer.com comes from ...is how it has always appealled to both sides of the farm gate and has a firmer feel for the mentality that is pushing producers and consumers of ethically produced food together.

Read it!  You'll dig it.

El Calfecito

You may recall my story of early this year about a little calf that got rejected by his mommy.  Well, here we are about 9 months later and I'm happy to report that the little fella is hale and hearty ...and getting bigger everyday!

I want to eat him ...but My Missus and even the gauchos won't let me!

But there is hope for my asado, yet!  Everyone is beginning to realize that a 375 lb pet is a pain in the ass ...even if you don't have to take him for walks or feed him.

To date, he has broken almost every big flower pot we have, eaten my wife's strawberry plants, and left a huge, signed, organic art installation right in front of our kitchen door.  Other than that, he's a great lawnmower ...kind of a "lawn-roomba"

...and, since he's so tame, he has a strange and perhaps useful effect his more savage little friends.  Ordinarily, those little calves would not go anywhere near a human ...let alone, venture away from their mother.

The old farmer literature is full of examples of using animals like our little Calfecito to pull loads and implements.  They are so smart and so heavy and strong ...and eminently train-able.  In the old days, the task of training a young ox (a castrated male bovine that you are not planning on eating) was given to boys of about 8 years old.

Well, we don't have any 8 year old boys on our ranch ...and I can't see any of us taking the time to train this delicious little guy to "gee and haw."

Stay tuned for more about our all-grass, no-grain, no-antibiotic, no-hormone, stress-free little buddy!

Yum.

Cows are not Chickens

A lot of regular readers check-in on this blog whenever something strange in the cattle industry pops-up in the mainstream news media.  Since we here at YM read the trades ...so YOU don't have to ...it's time to talk about Zilmax.

Zilmax or zilpaterol is a drug administered to cattle at feedlots ...and you may be glad to know that Argentina does not allow it.  The US feedlots, of course, love the stuff.

What popped-up in the press recently was the fact that US meatpackers do not like Zilmax ...and recently took steps to ban cattle from feedlots that use it.

Giant commercial cattle operations fighting giant commercial cattle operations ...gotta be a story there!

Well, here's the skinny on fat Zilmax beef cattle:

The drug makes cattle fatter faster with less feed.  It also has a reputation for making beef even less tasty than feedlot beef already is.  Even worse, it is said to make tender cuts like steaks tougher.

But if you're a feedlot operator, more-faster-cheaper ...is gonna beat "better" every time.

Feedlots, however, don't sell to consumers ...they sell to meatpackers.  Meatpackers sell to consumers who might (or might not) take offense at less tasty, less tender sirloin ...especially at a time of very high beef prices in the supermarket.

So, as you might imagine, meatpackers were slow to accept cattle that were tougher and less tasty ...but eventually all of them had to accept Zilmax-treated cattle because EVERY feedlot started to use it.

What made the news about a month ago was that a major US meatpacker back-tracked and informed the feedlots that it would no longer accept such cattle.

I didn't write about it at the time because ...hey, I've been a little lazy ...and I was a little suspicious.

I have no great love for meatpackers OR feedlots ...and I couldn't quite swallow the story that meatpackers were cutting-off Zilmax feedlots simply because they wanted to provide the public with a higher quality product.

As it turns out, a major beef publication (We Read the Trades so YOU don't Have to!) published a story about meatpacker complaints that Zilmax treated cattle can't walk very well.

Since cattle walk most of the way through meatpacking operations ...it's important to the meatpackers that they walk well.  If they can't walk very well (or not at all) it slows down the production line.

Now THAT make sense.

Of course, the feedlot operators are screaming that without Zilmax their costs are going to go up and they will eventually go out of business (a pretty standard response from the industry.)  They are also howling that the walking problems are due to only a tiny few of feedlots that don't administer the drug properly (also a very standard response.)  And finally, "if everyone would just use the drug like Merck says in the instructions, we can all go back to making some money."

What's all that go to do with chickens?

The chicken industry has been driving the cattlemen crazy for years.

The centralization and drug regimen of the chicken producers have dropped consumer prices and increased profits tremendously.  (Almost the same thing with hogs ...which are getting more and more Zilmax everyday, too.)

Both chickens and hogs reproduce a lot!  Eggs everyday, litters of hogs every few months.

Cattle rarely give birth to more than one offspring at a time ...and the gestation period is just like humans: 9 months.  Add to that the months a newborn calf needs to nurse from its mother before he can be shipped-off to the feedlots ...and you can see why cattlemen are jealous of the others.

So cattlemen have been trying ANYTHING they can find or think of to get similar production out of cattle.  That is what has given us doped-up, anti-biotic filled, kill them before they drop dead, tasteless, tough, can't-walk cattle.

I guess you can't blame them for trying ...but nature has a brick wall for industrial cattle.

Taking the cowness out of cows has produced a pretty poor product.  WHO KNEW?

Where have all the Argentine Cattle Gone?

To soybeans, that's where!
  
Argentina 2013/14 soy harvest seen at record 53-54 million tonnes
Mon Sep 09 15:44:12 UTC 2013

    * Higher sowing surface and favorable climate seen boosting crop
    * Farmers shift away from corn toward cheaper, easier soy
    * Climate experts warn about sporadic rains

    By Nicolás Misculin
    BUENOS AIRES, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Argentina's upcoming 2013/14 soy crop is seen reaching a record 53 million to 54 million tonnes, boosted by a larger planting area and favorable climate, experts in the South American grains powerhouse said.

    The upbeat forecast stems in part from the fact soaring corn cultivation costs and low final prices have pushed farmers toward planting more soybeans in the world's biggest soyoil and soymeal exporter.

    Analysts forecast soy sowing area will expand by 500,000 hectares compared with the previous season. 

Campo Communications

Rain, rain, rain.  40mm since this morning. My Missus really called it yesterday when she went to town for supplies ...the roads are impassable and probably will be for some time.

Well, that has given me a chance to play with my new communications rig.

Okay, don't laugh.  It's a blackberry 9300 cellphone AND a blackberry PlayBook tablet.

I know, I know, it's practically orphan-ware ...but blackberry is still king here in Argentina and the PlayBook is a tremendously powerful piece of kit for about $200 usd ...and with 64gb to boot!

I could have gone with Samsung or Apple but it would have been double, triple, or quadruple ...and I wouldn't have gotten 64gig which kicks ass for any kind of large files like photos and videos. Pretty damned good camera, too!

The Big 64 also allows an almost unlimited number of ebooks on obscure subjects such as heirloom veggies and grass-fed cattle which I can peruse leisurely on its good-sized screen.

I'm sure that all the other manufacturer's devices can do the few things I require ...but I'm not sure ...you tell me.

We have great cell phone service here ...our little burg was chosen as the site of the area tower about five years ago.  But the ranchhouse has a huge corrugated steel roof that is really pretty to listen-to during the rain ...but plays hell with reception in most rooms.

With my rig, I can place my celphone at a sweet spot ...and make it a bluetooth hotspot! That allows me to blog and surf anywhere up to several rooms away. Add to that the fact that my cellphone company can't tell that I'm "tethering" because of the "blackberry bridge" mechanism  ...and I save data charges, as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Perixx-PERIBOARD-805L-Bluetooth-Folding-Keyboard/dp/B00BU4OV50
Not to mention a larger keyboard ...and a treemendous full size bluetooth keyboard that I must recommend to users of any stripe: http://www.amazon.com/Perixx-PERIBOARD-805L-Bluetooth-Folding-Keyboard/dp/B00BU4OV50 (you can relax, I don't know how to make money off of Amazon links ...yet!)  They tell me that you can use it with any bluetooth enabled device. It is super.

All that having been said, I'm really sad that I can't recommend that you buy blackberry ...unless price is as much of a factor for you as it is for me in the peso economy.

BlackBerry's walled-garden makes Apple's look absolutely spacious!

But we are now modulatin' wall-to-wall and treetop-tall from the comfort of just about any chair in the homestead.  No more waiting for a trip to town to blog about something that happened last week.

Yanqui Mike's Open-Bar Ranch, the home of the Happy Bottom Riding Club is on the air!

The Week that Was

Today begins our second week at the ranch and, man, whadda week ...especially as concerns La Quinta (the garden.)  I'm not sure how all of you will feel about a gardening blog just as autumn is settling upon the Northern Hemisphere, but it crunch time here for getting everything into place for the "last frost date" of November 1st.

Gardeners, both active and wannabe, should dig it, I think.  Maybe you missed your chance to garden this year ...or maybe you were so wonderfully successful that the autumn colors are giving you the blues right now.  Then again, your garden may have failed miserably and these posts could have you cheering me on ...or laughing hysterically at my doomed attempts and wasted efforts.

See!  Something for everybody!

The ranching goes on, of course, and this is actually a very busy part of the year for that.  Our gaucho Cristian and I and both of our wives are on 24 hour call as 400 mommy cows give birth all over our spread.  Usually, there is nothing more to that than watching the miracle of birth and oooohing and awwwing at the baby animals.

Occasionally, however, a first-time mommy will have trouble and need assistance.  Sometimes a newborn will be rejected by the mother and we'll all be in for a shift of bottle feeding if we can't find another mother to take him in (rare, but it happens!)  There are as well, caesarian sections that must be performed by our vet ...and he tells me that for some strange reason he has never performed so many as he has this year.

There is also general maintenance and improvements that pop-up and must be performed right away ...but mostly, this time of year is for gardening and helping mommies give birth.

As gauchos generally loathe gardening (Cristian has already referred to my works as "prison labor,") my time will be devoted more to the garden.

And what a monster.  Inside a beautifully constructed Argentine cattle fence, is a plantable area of 45 x 78 feet. About half was under cultivation last year ...and we did pretty well with okra and greens and eeespecially tomatoes!  The other stuff ...not so much.  Weeds and bugs and neglect on our part when we were called away to Buenos Aires City for a couple of prolonged periods.

So this year, we're taking what we learned, stuff that I've read about, and trying to get a jump on spring so as to have a longer growing season.

I even invented a thing or two that you may enjoy.

Long days of lots of work are putting a crimp in my blogging ...but it's spring, after all, and rainy days like today will allow me to put my new communications rig through its paces.  I'll probably write a little about that, too.  It's a little on the laughable side ...but as you can see, it makes possible blogging from the old ranch house with no electricity and no internet!

More to come,
Mike

It's Great to be Back!

Hello Mr. & Mrs. North & South America and all ships at sea!  We're back and we're back in the campo.  Spring has raised her wild green mane and every living thing is anticipating the end of old man winter.

That includes My Missus and I.  The garden beckons us while 400 pregnant cows begin giving birth all over our spread.  Our mommies are doing fine ...so it is up to us to tend to the vegan side of the operation.  And what an operation we have planned.  Over 400 sq. yards of incredibly fenced-in garden space in the middle of  only God knows how many herbivores.

Last year was only a prelude.  This year we have lots of new technological advances ...not the least of which is the communications rig on which I am communicatin' witcha at this very moment.  Lots of back-breaking labor, as well ...all for your enjoyment!  New jury-rigged methods and theories and constructions, too!  Hilarity is guaranteed to ensue.

Plenty of updates as well on "Cafecito" and all the gang.

So stay tuned.  I'll promise you at least a little blogging almost every day ...and as winter settles-in on the majority of the English-speaking world, you can at least vicariously enjoy spring from the Yanqui Mike Open-Bar Ranch, the home of the Happy Bottom Riding Club.

We love you madly and thanks for stickin' with us.  This gonna be a great year.

Mike y Alicia

Rest in Peace, Queca

Thank you for everything, Mamá.

Carry Me On

I forget what to ask for
There isn't anything I haven't been given
How could I wish for anything more
As I am here living in heaven

This moment in the sun
To feel the wheel turning on

Carry me on my way

I worry about my actions
I think about the damage I do
I've seen the coming attractions
Armageddon and Waterloo

I tried to change my mind
I wasted precious time

Carry me on my way

Who knows where the time goes
Only everything is everything
Feels like I'm wearing my father's clothes
Singing a song my brother would sing

I turned to hide my face
They're gone without a trace

Carry me on my way

Argentine Beef Exports Fall Again. Europe Couldn´t Care Less.

Yer faithful Rancher/Blogger reads the trades ...so you don´t have to!

Today's e-issue of EBLEX the organization of the English beef and sheep industry, reports that exports of Argentine beef have fallen even further.  At this point, our once-was powerhouse of beef exporting has become irrelevant to our former best customers, Europe.

In the darkest days of Argentine beef exports, 2001, when the world closed their markets to us because of an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease, we exported 43,000 tons of fresh and frozen beef (cooked/canned beef is a much cheaper, much lower margin product.)

Today, we export 29,000 tons.  In the 1980's we averaged about 250,000 tons per year.

Argentina's traditional customers in Europe have largely given-up on ever seeing it again ...they have moved-on to other providers.  If Argentina ever again begins to exports in significant quantities, it will be hard to win those customers back.

Charmingly, Europe thinks that we still produce the kind of grass-fed beef that can compete with premium UK beef.  News of our feedlots, apparently has not reached the other side of the pond either.

This Is What Humane Slaughter Looks Like. Is It Good Enough?

(from Mac McClelland, Modern Farmer)

"The phone in Prather’s modest beige office rings a lot. But when people call these days, it’s most often not to ask what the cows are fed, or if they’re on antibiotics or hormones, or how lushly and freely they range.

"It’s to confirm how peacefully they died."

Kill a Bee, Make a Buck!

Isn´t this old news?  Nope.  You might remember the shocking news of massive sudden deaths of bee colonies back in 2006 ...but it is much worse now in 2013.

So what exactly is new about this?  The new thing is: the reason for the deaths has been discovered ...and it's money, big money, Big Ag Money.  Good luck, bees!  It was nice having youse guys around.

Wait a minute!  Won't we all die of starvation without bees?  Aren´t all foods pollinated by bees?

Nope.  Only about 1/3 of all food crops are pollinated by bees.

WTF?  What crops are not pollinated by bees?

Answer: most famously, corn and soybeans.

Where's the big, easy money for Big Ag Money?

Answer: most famously, corn and soybeans.

As I've said for a long time, "the day is going to come when the only thing for dinner will be a Cargill Soya Burger and a glass of Archer Daniel Midland Vodka ...when all I really want is a glass of malbec and a grass-fed steak."

Well, my friends, we appear to be much, much closer to that dinnertime than I ever imagined.  Strangely, relief from that monoculture meal headache could come from the same folks that gave you that headache: Bayer Crop Science.

Personally, like you, I never thought you could could make a buck in agriculture if you were in favor of killing bees.  Like you, I thought that bees pollinated everything.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my hundreds of deeelicious organically-grown hybrid tomatoes were probably NOT pollinated by bees!

Tomatoes, like corn and soy, are New World plants ...and bees are not native to the Americas.  Those plants pollinate themselves, usually with no more help than the breeze. Fans of berries, fruits, nuts, and melons will lose to Big Ag Money.

Big Ag Money will not care.
Big Ag Money will make even more money
once the bees are gone.

It's not just Big Ag Money.  It's a United States Department of Agriculture that has been bought and paid for ...and neutered like one of my calves.  At a recent USDA hearing on the effect on bees of insecticides used on GMO corn and soy, Monsanto and every Big Ag Money corporation was allowed to speak.  Only one beekeeper was granted the same privilege.

Regulating authorities in Europe might take a more strict stance ...but there is no guarantee.  Big Ag Money is big everywhere and it counts more than votes.

As you eat, US beekeepers are being crushed, non-GMO crops are being decimated, and democracy is being trumped by Big Ag Money.  If you can´t sleep well, at least eat well while you can.