Anyone Need to Buy Some Soya!

It’s a brutal world sometimes especially for us farmers! We prepare the land, we plant the seeds, we watch the crop grow, we fumigate to save us from disaster and we finally harvest the crop. It’s exactly what we did with our soya crop. We invested somewhere in the region of 50000US and we had expectations of making around 20-30% on our money – not a bad return if the wind was going in the right direction. Course in a country which is full of surprises - some good some bad - we shouldn’t have been surprised when the price of meat here doubled in six months (don’t worry if you are coming here to enjoy a decent steak it’s still a lot cheaper than Europe). The problem for us was we rented the land based on the price of a kilo of beef. Six months ago it was A$3 it’s now A$6 plus. It means the rent we were paying for the land doubled- taking with it our profit. Not only that but the price of soya has dropped (it’s now moving up again). All this means is that if we sold today we would make a net profit of about 5US$ - yep that’s right a miserly 5 bucks. Ok that brings a few tears in our eyes but it’s not all bad news. We had to turn the land three times because it was virgin land- that took 11000US$ of our budget – a huge hit. If we plant next year, which without doubt we will, we will avoid that cost. Also we will put a limit on the price we are prepared to pay for the land i.e. if beef triples we will limit what we pay. We now have 2800 kilos of soy in the silos and they will store it free for five months. It was a record year for soya production here in Argentina. The ports are full of soya and that has put a downward pressure on the soya price. We have decided to hold our soya in the silos and play the market .The expert’s opinion is that the price will rise to around A$1000 per ton in the next few months (it’s A$840 as I write this) and at that stage we sell. It could of course go down heaven forbid and we will be handing our food basket around for you to put a loaf of bread in!

All in all it’s been a fascinating experience for me and I intend with Mario to do it again. Next month we are thinking of sowing wheat – its great stuff this farming lark. Course I realize the idea is to make money but I am confident we will get there. Watch this space to see what we eventually get for our soya - at the moment it’s tucked up safe and sound in Azul in the silos.

This is David Cummings alias the English Gaucho of to see what the price of soya is today – up I hope!

Buses and Buenos Aires

 Going back on a  bus !

I am a bus man! Well I don’t drive them as the great Reg Butler did but I use them regularly when I am here in BA and I like them. It means I don’t have to drive, it is cheap and it gets me there and my ecological footprint is less than if I drove a car around the capital – every little bit helps as they say. I remember when I was a sprog I used to catch the 216 to see my then girl friend Stevie who is now my dear friend and sometimes editor! I remember us sometimes waiting for what seemed like years for the single decker to trundle up and take me home. Of course, it didn’t matter to us how long we waited, we would be kissing and cuddling in the way that only the young can get away with! As it trundled along it finally whisked me away from her for another night . I got on, I paid my fare, the bus driver drove, he observed all the rules i.e. he didn’t jump traffic lights or try to kill pedestrians neither did he try to test how much stamina the old have before they pleaded for mercy – no the driver and bus trundled on their way and when I got off I didn’t feel dizzy or exhausted from hanging on for dear life as it's momentous highlights flashed before me . No sir, that experience was waiting for me here in Buenos Aires!

Now, for sure, there is no doubt about it, bus fares here must be the cheapest in the world – it costs just AR$1.25 pesos (about 12 pence) to go anywhere in the capital – that is not just a bargain it is a steal. Not only are they cheap but there are loads of them. I used to wait hours for the 216 I seem to remember - I don’t think I have ever had to wait more than 5 minutes for a famous 152 Chacarita to La Boca to come roaring along and believe me there is no trundling here - roaring up with all noise screaming is the way it’s done in BA – it’s not for sissies!

It is a wonderful public transport system here, however, with some flaws. Most tourists that come here miss out on a unique experience by not using it – or do they? . If you come here you should try it just to see how long you can survive! I swear, sometimes it feels like a BA bus must be the same as one those bucking broncos! How long can I stay on without being unceremoniously thrown off ?. No doubt about it the drivers are trained to kill here and if you get in their way while crossing the road too bad you had better be quick. Now here is an odd thing and maybe some of you other ex- pats who live here can answer this. When a driver roars up to a bus stop and the people start to pile in, all the driver wants to do is get away as fast as he can even without the passengers. Often, he does just that ,leaving passengers fuming at the bus stop !. The drivers can’t wait to get away so they will shut the door in your face and drive off – now why is that? – are they docked money for every second they are late getting back to the terminal? – are they all on a promise? – are they all in a bad mood? I just can’t answer it! I can just say that it happens all the time. And god forbid if you are 80 and a little dodgy on your feet – they will take that as an opportunity to slam on the brakes as hard as they can so sending a number of grannies into orbit every now and then with the words of David Bowies when are you gonna come down ringing in their ears.

There is no doubt it’s a great system and in spite of my little digging I still use it because it’s so cheap and so efficient - just a tiny bit dangerous! Come here and you should at least give it a go – just have a valium on the big day .

This is David Cummings alias the English Gaucho heading back to La Margarita by horse!

Soya Harvest Time - at last I am qualified a farmer – well nearly!

As some of you may have read in my previous blogs last October we decided with a partner Mario a farmer in Tapalque to plant soya bean. It was a bit of a risk to say the least. The previous year this area had experienced the worst drought of recent times. In fact Mario ( in the photos with me ) who had planted soya and wheat during that fateful year lost the lot. Normally in farming he explained one can recoup the initial investment - ok the work investment part is lost but at least you get to fight the next year. That year he and many others lost their entire investment - it was that bad. With this knowledge as you can imagine it was a tough decision to decide whether to plant or not – many decided not to. Call us stupid but we decided to go ahead and be dammed. The long range forecast for El Nino was good - the prediction was for lots of rain. Course lots of rain could mean too much rain and the same results as the drought year happening i.e. everything down the drain if you excuse the pun. As it happened the rain came the sun came the rain came the sun came the rain well you get it. It was a perfect year for growing soya – it is a record harvest and Mario who suffered a nervous six months with his daily look at the weather forecast is a happy farmer. We started to harvest our 500 acres last week – we have a week more to go and then it will all be in the silos in Azul. Our decision then will be do we sell immediately or do we play the market- blimy I never had these decisions when I played the guitar for a living. Me I think I will sell we are just in the process of purchasing 100 cows so we could use the cash. The question is how much will be get per ton on the day we decide to sell. It’s my first time I have ever done this so it’s an excitingly nervous time- did we make money? – did we break e even or god forbid did we lose? Although it was a record year prices for the land we rented rose in price per acre since it was fixed to the price of meat here which rose steeply in price also (still a good steak in Argentina is a lot lot less than it is in the UK thank goodness) and so did the prices of fertilizers etc. It will soon be time to do the numbers – keep a look out how we fared - all will be revealed within the next few weeks. Once we have all the info we have to make a decision of what to do next year – plant or not to plant – watch this space we live in interesting times on La Margarita and for sure sometimes it feels like a long way from the South of France where I used to live in the nineties playing and singing – probably cos it is I guess!

David Cummings alias the English Gaucho in Tapalque Argentina