Day 12--Arcor and Goodbye

We started our morning early by saying goodbye to our host families, grandmas, and sisters.  From our experiences, one of the best parts of the trip was having the opportunity to stay in a home with Argentines for a week and experience their culture on a deeper level.  Saying goodbye was tough, but we are incredibly thankful for the experience.

Once we got on the road, we headed to the Arcor factory. Arcor is Argentina's leading food supplier, and the number one manufacturer of candy worldwide.  The company began in Cordoba in 1951 as a candy factory, and has since grown to have 49 plants in Latin and South America, and produces lines of products that include food, agricultural products, a confectionery, food packaging, and chocolates. Arcor also produces energy, and since last year, they acquired 14,000 hectares of forest and a dairy. As a result, they have become very vertically integrated, from producing their own dairy products, to manufacturing their own packaging for their goods.  Arcor still remains a family owned company, while employing 20,000 employees.

At the San Pedra complex, we were able to see their production lines of dry corn milling, alcohol distilling, vegetable oil extraction, and extruded products.  The dry corn milling line has the capacity to process 340 tons per day and produce products such as corm meal, flaking grits, flour, and bran.  We were able to see how the components of the corn kernel were separated to produce a variety of products. The alcohol distilling line has the capacity to product 84,000 liters per day.  We also saw the extruded products line, which produces 44 tonnes of crude products, 24 tonnes of refined products, and 100 tonnes of pelleted products per day.  This line creates products such as corn pellets, gum, crude oil, soap-stock, and refined corn-oil.  Finally, we saw the extruded products line with a capacity of 5 tonnes per day.  The products include things like crisp toppings and rice thin crackers.

After lunch at Arcor, we loaded up the van for the last time and headed to the airport.  These last two weeks have been extremely educational, and the experience we've had is invaluable.  Hope to see you again soon, Argentina.

--Sara and Ryan

Day 11 - Speciality Crops

Today was yet another fun and adventurous day in the Santa Fe Province. We went to
two different locations about an hour south of Rosario: Argo Uranga and the AFA (Agricultores
Federados Argentinos).

Bailey and Celeste (the writers) with our popcorn!

Argo Uranga was a 12,000-hectare family farm that was established all the way back in
1857. Approximately 65% of the operation belongs to the Uranga family, and the rest is
managed by a corporation. The location of the estate was absolutely beautiful; they have
buildings and living quarters there that are still standing after 160 years. They produce typical
crops such as corn, soybeans, barley, wheat, etc., but they also are experts in growing specialty
crops like popcorn. We got the opportunity to see the actual popcorn crop in the field along with
their facility where they store, dry, and package popcorn, which was very fascinating to see. It
was interesting to learn that they export all of their popcorn to over 50 countries worldwide.

Popcorn plant

The other place we visited was an AFA facility that was built for farmers that want to
produce specialty crops such as popcorn, lentils, legumes, chickpeas, black beans, etc.
Essentially, the AFA is an enormous co-op for farmers across the region. They have

Specialty seeds at AFA

approximately 2,700 employees and 39,000 members. The AFA operates in nine provinces with a total of 26 main storage facilities. In particular, this one was very impressive because of the fact that they process specialty crops, which is what we are not used to seeing back in Iowa. Their automatic system has the ability to separate a specialty crop by density, color, and size. Like Argo Uranga, this AFA facility exports a majority of their product, but mainly to Brazil for the past four years.

For tonight, we have dinner plans with our host families to celebrate our last night here in
Argentina. Then tomorrow, we will have one last stop in the morning before we head to the airport.

Day 10- All About Exports and Green Machines

Day 10 was another early one. We started off the day by heading up river to Vicentin port. A very large grain exporting port. Vicentin is roughly 80 years old and exports to China, Spain, Italy, and other Asia countries. Vicentin is a family owned company that takes pride in its employees by feeding them everyday free of cost to the employee. We students got see first hand the full process of the soybean crushing, biodiesel, loading soymeal onto barges, unloading of the trucks, and other processes that take place at this plant. It was very cool to be able to look out on the port and see the river and a ship being loaded. At full capacity the ship pictured below will take 40 hours to load and 4 days to unload. A ship like the one pictured below can hold 50 thousand tons! (That’s a lot)

The soybean crushing lines were running full speed when we were there doing 16000 tons a day between the two crushing lines. The older line can do 6000 tons a day while the new one can do 10000 tons a day! Vicentin has a total storage capacity of 360 thousands tons, which will be filled and empty over 2 times a year.

After a meal with the workers at Vicentin it was off to John Deere! This is located in a small town about 30 mins from Rosario. This plant first opened its doors in 1958. At this plant this they produce motors, assemble combines and 4 and 5 series tractors! This was very neat to see and has been a highlight of the trip for some… or maybe a downfall if you’re a red guy! Sorry Trace! We got to see first hand how the assembly line works and what it is done at each step of the process. Each day roughly 42 motors are put together, 3.5 tractors and up to 3 combines a day! Unforently we were not allowed to take pictures in the plant, but do have this one as a group pictured below!

Once back in Rosario students had some free time. Some went shopping, played cards, caught up on some sleep and just relaxed before a fancy dinner on the river.

We ended the night at Riomio, a restaurant that over looks the river. This was also a thank-you dinner with APOSGRAN group. Students had a variety of different cuts of beef and pork. The food was very good and ended the night by going to our host families.

Signing off for the final time from Argentina,

Tymbrie and Tucker

Day 9 -- ACA Feed Mill, Rosario Board of Trade, & Dinner with APOSGRAN

Day 9 got off to a nice early start (7 am is too early for college students) to make it possible for us to take a tour of an ACA Feed Mill. ACA is the Argentine Cooperative Association. They function as a co-op of co-ops and have a wide variety of operations and products, such as animal nutrition, animal health, and production agriculture inputs. The feed mill produces a wide variety of products from Reuter, a proprietary product that improves the development of the rumen in cattle, to pet feed in varying grades and purposes. The mill does not buy any pre-mixed products and has two lines of production. The one line is primarily for Reuter production and the other line services the other products of ACA. The basic process of producing the feed starts with mixing and steaming the created mix. Then it is processed through an extruder that produces pellets required for the current product. The pellets then travel to an oven to be baked into the final product. After baking, they are sifted to remove any small particles, cooled in a counter-flow cooler, and sent through a process that coats the pellets in a liquid containing various things that enhance the product. The finished pellets then proceed to bagging. The mill had recently  installed a robotic bagging system so all the bags were filled and packaged automatically.

In the afternoon, we journeyed back into Rosario to visit the Rosario Board of Trade. It is the most important grain and grain futures market in Argentina. They still have a trading floor that operates with face to face and verbal contracts, one of the only of its kind in the world. Several people gave us presentations in the afternoon. One focused mainly on the economic significance of the Board and the services it provides to various members of the agricultural community. Another talked about the arbitration portion of the Board. Any farmer or buyer/seller of grain who has a contention of the grain grade they have received can submit samples to the Board and receive a ruling. The last presentation was about the laboratory related to the Board. The lab processes the samples from the grain arbitration cases as well as any other samples sent to them for analysis by various agencies. The Board maintains labs around the country but the one in Rosario is the most important.

After leaving the Board of Trade, we had a couple of hours to kill so we all scattered our separate ways and explored Rosario or took some needed time off at our host families houses. The cap to the night was  a dinner with APOSGRAN. APOSGRAN is an organization of individuals who are in the feed and grain processing industry. The night was filled with food, wine, and good conversations had in Spanish (and English) about farming, family, and a wide variety of topics. We all made it back to our houses by midnight to get ready for whatever the next day has to offer.

Sincerely,

Rebekah & Trace

Day 8--UCEL & Soybean Crushing Pilot Plant

UCEL Soybean Crushing Pilot Plant

Today our group had the opportunity to tour around UCEL (La Universidad del Centro Educativo Latinoamericano) and learn not only about the university, but also some insight into bean crushing facilities.  We were fortunate enough to be accompanied by Dr. Leticia Bourges and Dr. José Gerde, who is a former Iowa State graduate! Although we are in a different country, it is interesting to spend time with someone that has spent a fair amount of time in Iowa and Argentina as well.  We learned that UCEL is a private university which means students must pay for tuition. If a student were to go to a public university, tuition is free. Although there is added costs, UCEL was able to start a Pilot Plant for a soybean crushing facility which would’ve taken many more years had it been a public university. UCEL has various locations and offers degrees in the college of chemistry, economy and business, law and social sciences,  e-learning, and Wesley Institute.

We were welcomed very warmly by the University!

In the morning, we toured UCEL and listened to a lecture on processing soybeans and how important the industry is to Argentina.  Argentina has invested heavily in value-added processes before exporting their soybeans. Most of these processing facilities are near Rosario because of its close proximity to the Parana river.  Rosario is the farthest city up-river that ocean-going vessels can travel, making it a hub for soybean product exports.

In the afternoon, we were able to explore in more detail the processing of soybeans, and the different methods for extracting the oil from the bean. The two methods of soybean crushing are mechanical extraction and hexane extraction.  The UCEL pilot facility has the capability to do both of these methods and complete small batches to run tests on different varieties of soybeans. The plant is in partnership with the Bunge processing facility, which has a full scale plant next door.  The pilot plant has the ability to crush about 3 tonnes of soybeans per day, whereas a full scale plant is able to crush 10,000 to 20,000 tonnes per day, but the processes for both are the same. From beginning to end, the entire process takes about 1.5 hours for both the pilot and full scale plants.  From the mechanical oil extraction, the leftover cake contains approximately 8 to 10% oil, and from the hexane extraction, less than one percent of the remaining cake is oil. The remains of the soybeans after the oil is extracted can be used to feed ruminant animals because the rumen has the ability to break down the fatty acids, whereas a monogastric would not have the ability to process them.  The pilot plant is very well equipped in terms of fire prevention and new technologies. One goal the plant has is to add a teaching facility on site to teach UCEL students about soybean processing with hands-on experience.

Soybeans after different stages of processing

In the evening, we had the opportunity to sit in on a sensory analysis class.  The class focuses on using sight, smell, taste, and touch to analyze foods. We were able to evaluate honey in the class.  We rated it based on odor type, odor intensity, color, crystal size and frequency, fluidity, and other qualities. After smelling and tasting the honey, we listened to student presentations on honey in Argentina.  Although Argentina is a leading producer of honey, most of it is exported. They also touched on where consumers are getting their honey from and how frequently they eat it. For a country that produces so much of it, a large portion of the population does not consume it for various reasons.  We also got to try some delicious honey products and homemade honey treats that the students made--if only every class was like this one!

Sensory analysis of honey

--Sara and Ryan

Day 7 - Off to Rosario

Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires

We finished our weekend by exploring more of the lovely city of Buenos Aires. We all broke up into pairs and went to a variety of locations, including a very famous cemetery called Recoleta Cemetery. Many of us shopped for souvenirs for friends and family while continuing to take in all of the sites and history. We took off for Rosario after lunch. We are excited to spend or last five nights with our host families and learn much more about the agricultural production of Argentina. 

Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires

Day 6- Exploring Buenos Aires

Today we bought a day pass for the tour bus and made our way around Buenos Aires. Our first stop was the governement area where we saw the Pink House (Arentine equivalent of the White House) and the house of congress. There was also a cathedral containing the tomb of San Martin, a general who liberated a number of South American countries, including Argentina. We had lunch near a small plaza full of stands selling all sorts of goods and artisan crafts. We walked through a busy fresh market where they were selling meat, vegetables, nuts, and grains. We hopped on the bus and visited La Boca, which had a street market located near some beautiful colored houses (pictured). We also stopped at La Recoleta, a large market next to a huge flower called Floralis Generic featured in the United Nations Plaza (pictured).

~Tymbrie and Tucker

Day 5-Alfajores & Travel

We loved our time in Balcarce, but it was time to head towards Bueno Aires. We made a stop in Mar Del Palta to grab some Alfajores for the road at the Havanna Plant. During the tour of the facility we were impressed by the machines that were used throughout the process of baking, frosting and packaging the cookies. Our guide shared that during the peak season this plant could make 260,000 cookies a day, which we figured would be enough for our road trip. 

The traditional aspects of the factory were impressive. Part of the preparation of the cookies are still done by hand and other parts done by machines from the 50s.The hand preparation is very important for Havanna because it allows them to label the alfajores as "artesenal". Although the machines weren't brand new they were incredibly efficient. How they streamlined the production progress was very creative, unique just to making cookies. Many of the students mentioned that they felt like they were walking through Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. 

We stopped by a local port to check out the views of the "silver ocean," which were breathtaking.  We peaked our heads into a few local stores before heading to lunch. Although today wasn't the best day for a swim in the ocean, Sam got to cross putting his feet in the Atlantic Ocean off his bucket list! 

Then it was time to head back into our trusty van to begin the trip to Bueno Aires. 

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely Expert Cookie Tasters,

Rebekah & Trace

Day 4--Trip to Tandil

Today our group had the opportunity to take a day-trip to Tandil, a city of approximately 140,000 and approximately 100 km Northwest of Balcarce. While here, we had the opportunity to visit Martinez & Sandeck, who manufactures equipment for the Silobags we learned about earlier in the week, in addition to animal feed mixers. We also visited with Dan and Sue Frank- a couple who left West Texas in a drought to continue cattle ranching. 

Because of Tandil's larger population, more opportunity exists for factories and a larger labor force is present. Martinez and Sandeck is located in an industrial park of the city, which houses 120 factories. Another industrial area of the city has the capacity to host more than 300 factories. This industrial area model has proven efficient as far as energy distribution, and concentrates the industrial scene to one location and mitigates distaste and complaints from community members. The Martinez and Sandeck factory builds most parts of their equipment in house by utilizing tools like a robotic welder. They are able to produce one piece of equipment per day. These pieces range from 4 different sizes of Silobaggers, 2 sizes of mixers, and a Zero Energy Silobagger. The Zero Energy bagger requires no external power from an engine or tractor to fill the bag, unlike other baggers. Instead, the Zero Energy is propelled forward by the force the grain exerts while the bag is being filled. Two people are required to operate the Zero Energy. The brakes can be adjusted to regulate how much internal pressure from the grain is required to move the bagger forward--ensuring that the bag is filled properly and does not exceed the maximum allowable stretch. 

We also had the opportunity to speak to representatives of the company about the use of Silobag technology in the United States. While it is not widely used now, we could see the potential for its usefulness in regions of the United States that don't experience harsh weather conditions, and that produce a greater variety of crops. It could also be used as a means of temporary storage in instances of crop surplus in the Midwest. We had the chance to discuss the market of Silobaggers in the United States and how they might be better suited for other regions as there is an established system for crop storage. Since we were able to give some input to the company, we feel that they may have a better grasp on where would be the best location to market their product in the United States.

At Dan and Sue Frank's Ranch, Jehová Jireh, we were greeted on horseback by some real Texans. The couple left West Texas in 2000 during a severe drought. They wanted to continue cattle ranching and their previous visits to Argentina inspired them to continue doing so here. They sold their Texas ranch and immediately moved to Argentina to find some land to ranch cattle. The Frank's son also lives on the ranch and has his own herd. They raise Horned Hereford cattle--Argentina's less popular brother of Polled Herefords. The Frank's see the horned cattle as having significant advantages over other Herefords in the region. They are easily identifiable, some diseases present in the polled breed are not present in the horned breed, and the cows are able to fight off wild dogs or pumas to protect herself and her calf. 

Their ranching operation is calf to finish. The cows graze on pasture year round and don't receive any supplemental feed. They are able to maintain a stocking rate of 1 cow/calf pair per 1 to 1.25 acre. All of their cattle are fattened on the ranch, where they are fed a mix of corn, barely, and protein supplement. They don't fatten their replacement heifers and crossbred heifers. The crossbred heifers result from a Jersey bull being bred to a Hereford heifer to avoid dystocia on her first calving. 

The entire operation is a closed system, meaning that new cattle are never brought in. In fact, if a bull gets out and into contact with neighbor cows, he immediately leaves the ranch. Potential for diseases like Hoof and Mouth or Screw Worms drive the Frank's decision to operate with strict bio-security practices like this. Their concerns have caused them not to bring in a single outside cow to the ranch since 2001. They inbreed all of their cattle, which allows them to select for ideal traits and promotes their bio-security practices. For breeding, they divide the herd of 750 cows into three groups. The heifer calves will always remain with the group they are born into, while the bulls will rotate from group to group. For example, bulls from group 1 go to 2, 2 goes to 3, and 3 goes to 1. After 3 breeding seasons, the bulls leave the farm. There is a market for young bulls like this, and the Franks have found successful results in this breeding method. 

Tomorrow we are off to Mar del Plata, and then to Buenos Aires for the weekend!

Adios from Balcarce,
Sara and Ryan

Day 3 – Agricultural and Animal Production

          Today we got the opportunity to learn about three main categories of common Argentine agricultural practices: crop production, animal production, and the use of silo bags.  We explored a relatively large farming operation, known as El Volcan, right outside of Balcarce and a more common farm of approximately 3,500 hectares that was approximately 30 km away.

El Volcan

             When considering the animal production aspect, El Volcan maintains a herd of 1,500 head of cattle.  However, at this location, the cattle are utilized mainly for breeding purposes instead of human consumption.  We discovered that their breeding system is fairly similar to that in the United States.  Over the past 20 years, El Volcan has imported a vast amount of cow embryos from the United States, but they cannot import actual cattle because of the risk of spreading disease.  Overall, the farm has a sufficient paddock system of approximately 500 hectares (1250 acres) designated for cattle use. 

Bailey and Celeste ~ Todays Writers!

                On the other hand, it was very fascinating to learn about their crop production system down here.  There are some similarities to back home, but there are numerous differences as well.  First of all, as compared to most Argentine farmers who rent land on a one-year lease basis, this farm is managed by a family corporation who actually own all of their 10,000 hectares.  The 34 employees perform 92% of the total work throughout the year, and the remaining 8% (mainly harvest operations) is on contract.  Also, it was interesting to explore the large amount of diversity they have in the crops they produce.  Not only do they grow corn and soybeans, but they also produce wheat, barely, sunflowers, and some potatoes.  In a given year, they receive an average corn yield of 150 bushels/acre and soybean yield of 45-55 bushels/acre.  It was also surprising to see this farm use some forms of precision ag since only about 5% of the nation utilize this technology.

Taking CO2 samples.

            The last part of the day was spent exploring how Argentines utilize silo bags.  Silo bags have been shown to be an efficient and cost-effective alternative to grain bins.  They cost approximately $420 and tend to be 9 meters in diameter and 60 meters in length.  However, they can be slightly customized from those dimensions to fit the farmer’s needs.  The most interesting fact about the silo bags was that they account for almost 45 million metric tons of grain storage in Argentina which equals roughly 2 billion bushels. When looking at permanent storage fixtures in the United States, grain can be monitored by looking at temperature and carbon dioxide levels. The silo bags, however, use just one of these indicators. Temperature is not a great method of measuring the grain conditions as the heat will transfer automatically to the ground and air. The temperatures of the grain stored in these bags will just follow the average temperatures throughout the year. Carbon dioxide is a better indicator though. Since the grain is in a tight, confined space, it is very easy to detect the CO₂ levels using technology created through the INTA program. These levels have certain standards that should be met, and a farmer can easily figure out if there is a problem with the grain being stored, however, one may not know how big the problem is.                              

Silo bags filled with sunflower seeds.

            Tonight dinner is on our own. Empanadas here we come!!!

Day 2- How McDonald´s Fries Are Made

It was a foggy morning in Balcarce as the ISU Argentina 2018 group began their day. After a short continental breakfast at Hotel Balcarce, the group headed to McCain Potato factory just east of town. There we were greeted by Pablo Bisio who is an Agronomist.

Pablo gave us a presentation on potatoes. We learned that potatoes originated in the Andes mountains in Peru and are now the third largest food crop in the world. In Argentina, there are 68,000 hectares of potatoes grown each year. The McCain plant processes 400,000 metric tons of potatoes each year. They produce 200,000-240,000 metric tons of product, of which seventy percent is exported to Brazil, mostly for McDonalds. Pablo explained that about half of the potatoes are sourced from local growers and the other half are grown by the company. He told us the main strain of potatoes grown in Argentina are "Innovator", which have a dry matter content of about twenty percent. They are grown almost exclusively for industry, as the skin is rough and unappealling. This is in contrast to "Spunta", which we saw yesterday, which has a smooth skin and only about fifteen percent dry matter.

We learned that the biggest problems with potatoes tend to be fungus and recently, in the last five or so years, a virus called Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. This produces brown spots inside the potato. Another problem with potatoes is a phenomenon called "sugar ends". This happens when the potato has been stressed, and the starch in the ends of the potatoes turns into sugar. This happens naturally so the potato has a useable form of energy to begin growing, but it means bad things for fries. When this potato is fried, the Maillard reaction reaction occurs in the bit that has been turned into sugar and you get a spot in your fry that is brown. McDonald´s has set the tolerance for this sort of defect at only five percent. That is a lot of pressure to make perfect fries! There are also length requirements.

After the lecture, the students suited up and headed into the plant. Wearing hard hats, safety glasses, hair nets, and ear protection, we washed our hands and entered the production area. After being washed, potatoes are sent across the "bridge" to where they are steam peeled and cut. After being cut, they go through machines that look for defects such as discoloration. He explained that as the potatoes "jump" from one conveyor belt to another, a shot of air is used to knock the defective ones into a waste bin. The fries then go through a long machine that dries them using hot air. The raw potato fries are then sent to the fryers for a preliminary frying. After a precise frying, they are sent to the freezer, where they are cooled by sixty degrees (Celcius) in twelve minutes. They are then sent to packaging, which is almost entirely automated. This is all accomplished by only forty employees each shift. They produce eighteen tons of product an hour on their biggest line. 

At the end of the tour, we entered the quality assurance lab and got to sample some of the product. It was the freshest batch of McDonald´s fries we will ever eat! There were also samples of smiley fries (emoji fries by label), potato balls (original and jamón y queso), and thick cut fries with the skin still on.

After the busy morning learning about potatoes and making french fries, we experienced lunch on our own in Balcarce. At two, we met at the museum of Juan Manuel Fangio. Juan was a very successful Formula 1 racecar driver in 50s and 60s. There dozens of cars, hundreds of trophies, and many stories recorded for us to listen to as we explored the museum. In the free time between visiting the museum and dinner, Sam offered to take us on an Argentine safari to the sierras. We climbed the "mountain" then enjoyed Balcarce alfajores!

Tonight will be a barbeque for us with INTA representatives. We are looking forward to some great Argentina style fare!

Tymbrie and Tucker