Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Dairy Cattle and Monkeys

Today was another great day! We made our way to Piracanjuba Dairy about an hour from our hotel. The site that we visited was a smaller operation with about 480 total head of cattle and they were milking under 200 head twice a day. This site is utilized for training dairy farmers and workers in dairy production and practices. They covered everything from milking practices to management practices to artificial insemination. This training is open for all, but farmers who sell their milk to Piracanjuba get first priority. Piracanjuba has three large dairys across Brazil. Combined these three sites produce 1.5 million gallons of milk each day. At the farm we visited they had a variety of different breeds for training purposes, but the majority of dairy cattle are 7/8 Holstein and 1/8 Zebu.


We had several students with us that come from a dairy background. They enjoyed comparing the similarities and differences between dairy production in the USA and Brazil. They analyzed everything from nutrition to facilities.


We went for a traditional burger and fries for lunch before making our way to UFG (Universidade Federal de Goias) to tour campus. We started on the Agronomy campus with a tour of the coffee and food lab. All coffee for campus is roasted in this lab and quality tested. Next we found the monkeys! This is always a highlight for the students. We were, also, able to visit the TV station for UFG and learn about the workings of the station and programming.

We ended the evening by walking down the street from our hotel for supper and chocolate snacks. The catch was we no longer had a translator with us. We were surely a sight trying to order dinner at Giraffe's. When we made our way to the chocolate shop we were rescued by a nine year old boy who translated for us. We were very grateful! We are now enjoying an evening at the rooftop pool discussing the day and reflecting on what we have learned so far. Tomorrow we head to the hot springs and then the town of Intumbiara.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is interesting to compare the dairy industry in Brazil to the industry in the United States. I know from my knowledge that in America there is constant milk production on a dairy farm. Is this true on a farm in Brazil? Are they as productive as we are?

Anonymous said...

While the students were able to compare the Brazilian dairy industry to the United States, was there anything that was by far the most interesting when comparing the two? Also on this dairy farm in Brazil how much impact does this one farm have on the community?

Anonymous said...

Were the monkeys aggressive or friendly? I know in some countries their wildlife is super human friendly and often even tries to catch your food. If so, is there any wild animal in america that is as human friendly?

Anonymous said...

I know Brazil is a developing country, so how different is the Brazilian dairy industry compared to other countries, both developed and underdeveloped? I am surprised that these farms cover practices of artificial insemination. Are the three large dairys in Piracanjuba making enough to support themselves?

Anonymous said...

It must have been a bigger dairy farm since they were able to do artificial insemination right? or can they just do that at any farm or does it have to be like a commercial farm? I thought artificial insemination was expensive.

Anonymous said...

This post made artificial insemination seem like a commonly done thing on dairy farms, is it? Do these dairy farms use a lot of technology? Are they comparable to the United States with how advanced their technology is? Do they use any other advanced technologies on their dairy farms?

Anonymous said...

I think that it would be interesting to not only see the differences in the culture and how the people live and go about their Daley activities. it would also be interesting to see how they farm and the differences in technology because big farms in the us have millions dollars in equipment. and i would like to see what we could learn form their farms.

Brad Kinsinger said...

I will respond to the dairy questions first. We were surprised that their production and practices were not all that different from our practices here in the US. We had several students with dairy cattle at home and they were very impressed with dairy production in Brazil. This farm was set up as a training site for dairy producers and their workers and was set to replicate a typical dairy farm in Brazil. They have it set up to teach practices whether farms have high tech or low tech operations.

The monkeys...they are a smaller monkey. They keep their distance unless you have something that resembles food or could be carrying food. In fact they have had to implement a campaign to not feed the monkeys.

Anonymous said...

How cool that they have the set up to teach practices to other farms! Thank you so much for responding.

Post a Comment