The Next Stage of the Soya Saga is Sell Sell Sell

The soothsayers proved right after all or rather Mario my faming partner was right. After me fretting about the downward spiral of the price of soya from a high of around AR$1050 down to around AR$750 it has now rebounded as the wise one said it would. What happened that this year was a bumper harvest so the market for a short while was swamped with soya worldwide - hence the price going down.  Mario’s advice   was to keep your nerve my son it will come right soon don’t worry this always happens. Course me being a leaner farmer I had no idea if this usually happened but I followed the advice. So as I mentioned in a previous blog we sent our soya to the silos in Azul and I passed the time away biting my nails as the price went down further. Mario and I had one track telephone conversations ” did you see the price today, yea it’s down again, don’t worry it will rebound hold on, ok speak to you next week. And that advice has proved right. Last week the price reached over  AR$1000and we decided to sell some of  our soya. Our profit comes out at around 35% , not a bad return and although I have very short nails now I am very happy with the outcome. Next week Mario and I have a meeting to decide where we go from here i.e. what do we plant next, wheat, sunflower who knows????. Me I would be quite happy to book a holiday and head for the Brazilian beaches to let my nails grow back  but I am in the farming game  now on La Margarita  and that means  that the wheat growing season is upon us – to plant or not to plant is no doubt what we will be discussing next  week . My inner mind tells me we are going to gamble again and very soon those of you still interested in my farming exploits will hear about what we do. If you are not in it you can’t win it is the best advice I ever heard so my guess is we plant - watch this blog

This is  as usual David Cummings alias the English Gaucho off to buy  some quick nail growing liquid!

La Margarita ...a children’s paradise

   

   I hear the temperature this summer is reaching record heights in London where I am from – up to a scorching 34 - that’s hot for sure.  Here’s what it’s like down on La Margarita at this time of year in comparison.  Its winter here now in Argentina and to be honest we have just had two day of intensive rain and it was pretty dam wet. Since we had some guests coming I just asked the sun god if he could send some sun when they arrived.

Well he obviously listened to me because the other night  the clouds where blown away by a westerly wind and yesterday  morning our guests arrived to a day of glorious sunshine –  we had  a blue sky that stretched on forever and ever  as often happens on winter days  here in las pampas. It’s the school holidays here so we had a family from Argentina and by chance another from USA. Both had children with them of similar ages. As I have often mentioned in this blog there is no doubt about it La Margarita is a great place for kids.  For me it’s always lovely when children of different cultures become friends even though they don’t speak each other’s language. This is exactly what happened when Delfina from Argentina and Zoe from the States met up on La Margarita this week. Both bonded immediate -  easily communicating  by sign  language   and together  they  had the time   of their young lives riding  horses , milking  cows and playing with the dogs in the park plus having a million other adventures together  . Whilst there  is no doubt  about it’s great to  have  TV, internet and computer games etc but  there is no doubt about that  given the right circumstances  they can be  done without -  just ask Delfina and Zoe

         Joy to the world

         As usual  David Cummings alias the English Gaucho until next time

        

Gracias Diego – No Not That One!!

Well that’s it for another four years.  Amazing all that build up  over four years then suddenly its all over. It was fantastic I thoroughly enjoyed it. Did the best team win -  yes probably – shame about England and Argentina but how fantastic that Uruguay went so far. Finishing in fourth place with a population of only three million puts England to shame. What was really great was that Diago Forlan  of Uruguay won  the Player of the Tournament  award . The player of the tournament is chosen not only for the way he plays on the pitch but how he acts off the pitch and Diego Forlan was exemplary in both– a nice guy and great to fans. I am sure Uruguayans will be justly proud of him. He is however, typical of Uruguayans – really nice people.    If you get a chance go there its well worth a visit.

This is David Cummings alias The English Gaucho saying cheers to Diego Forlan and thanks for some great goals . Brazil next better start saving up!!

Its Nearly Over For Another Four Years

It’s been fab. All those games, all those tears, all that noise, all that joy and all that sadness. It’s now down to Spain (boring) and Holland (a bit dirty) to win it. Who wins it now I don’t care because my boys England (awful) gone with Argentina (what a reception they got on their return great fans -best in the world ) and my holiday house country Uruguay who did me proud -  Forlan you a genius and Suárez great hand ball mate)

Who wins - well on paper Spain but for romance I am going for Holland. Once it’s over its back to work – I almost forgot in the excitement  we have soya prices to monitor and cattle to feed.

This is David Cummings alias the English Gaucho off to buy some clogs

PS Good luck to Uruguay for third place on Saturday

This blog is in mourning for a few days - sorry

Sometimes the world is just not fair . It was bad enough England ( I am a Brit) being knocked out of the World Cup ( somewhat expected though). But to have my adopted country knocked out by the very   very  same team with nearly the very same score is just plain unfair. No matter what we all thought of Maradona being  selected the coach of Argentina (when my local sweetshop owner had more  experience than  him in running a football team) there  was no doubt he was the teams biggest fans as he showed many times with his embracing, kissing and hugging of them - but the dream is  well and truly over  and thats all I can write for now its all just to sad that my own country, the home of football, couldn't win it nor  my adopted country the home of  football passion couldnt do it either - I am off to feed the chickens and try to work out where it all went wrong

This is David Cummings alias the English Gaucho absolutely devastated

PS . The good news is Uruguay are still there and since I own a house there  I am routing for them now. Three  million people are set to party all year if they make it to the  final and believe me nice people they are so come on you Uruguay you can do it

Alle Argentina

Ok  its the big one today for Argentina - no time to talk about cows, soy bean  or chickens cos  no one in  Argentina cares - all they care about as the whole country stops at 11am today  is the game against Germany

DALE  DALE DALE   ARGENTINA