Our morning was spent at Embrapa rice and beans research facility which is one of 45 locations across Brazil within the Embrapa network. They started with an informative presentation on the work they do which ranges from grains to livestock. We visited experiment fields for cotton, peanuts and upland rice. Different grains have different breeding focuses. A focus for cotton is creating a glyphosate resistant plant that has drought tolerance and good quality fiber. In Brazil the focus is in upland rice (not produced in flooded paddocks) that is drought resistant with good yields and grain quality (non-sticky, soft rice). In Brazil double cropping is common as is using rotational planting programs. Currently one of the rotations they are using and having great success with is soybeans followed by upland rice and then planting corn and grass together. After harvesting the corn they grass will thrive and can be grazed for two years.
BrazilField
We ate lunch at UFG agronomy school cafeteria today and followed that with a campus tour. We visited the coffee roasting facility, main campus to see the monkeys and the TV production studio.
We ended our day at "ibf" which is bioactive fertilizer production. The big question all day by students was what do they produce? Simply, an additive of bacteria and fungi. So what do you do with this additive you might be wondering. It is added to cattle manure, poultry litter or sugar cane processing by-products along with phosphate rock to breakdown the components of the mixture making it ready for field application. In Brazil the soil is lacking in phosphorus and calcium, this combination provides the lacking elements.
I think it is fair to say we all learned a lot about crop production in Brazil today.
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