This past June, I traveled with the SDSU Spanish Department to Buenos Aires, Argentina. For an entire month, we attended classes, lived with host families, explored the big city, traveled to vineyards, the Andes Mountains, the rainforest and Iguazu Falls, and learned a lot of Spanish along the way. The month was truly an experience of a lifetime, and I had the opportunity to share that experience at the Kingsbury Co. Cattlemen’s Association’s Annual Meeting in Lake Preston, S.D. this past Saturday.

Although most of my time in Argentina wasn’t directly related to agriculture, I was submerged in a country that is crazy about beef and wine production. With Argentina’s FMD free status, mandatory animal identification program and grass-fed beef, Argentina can access Japanese and South Korean markets, with ease. Also worth noting: Argentina is number one in the world’s soybean production and number two in world corn production. This global agricultural powerhouse is definitely worth watching in the future, and while I have tons of stories to share from my time spent in South America, this blog post will highlight the most interesting points about this amazing country.

-Argentines eat three times more meat in a given year than Americans, nearly 150 lbs./year.

-Due to an extreme economic recession, the government taxes farmers’ products entering the export market by 50% in order to keep domestic prices low.

-Of the millions of cattle that roam La Pampa (the plains of Argentina), only 10% enter the export market

-The world weather pattern La Nina, has killed 300,000 head of cattle in a terrible drought in Argentina this year.

-During my time spent in Argentina, the farmers were on a 4 month strike against the government.

-Feedyards are a new concept in Argentina, and grass-fed beef is the norm.

Stay tuned for more tales of my Argentine adventures. They range from protests, road blocks, theft, drug lords, wine tasting, rock propelling and more… Don’t miss a beat!