In the past couple of weeks (depending on when you are reading this) there have been several headlines and articles about agricultural imports from Colombia. While I won’t delve into the politics around the headlines, I did find it interesting to have very recent context for where some of the coffee and other agricultural imports originated. Our LeadNY Agricultural Leadership program class had recently returned from our international trip, to no other than Colombia! It was an extraordinary trip, with some jam-packed days.
The highlight for me was seeing the diversity of agriculture that the country has to offer. We had several speakers on one of our first days there who represented the coffee, cocoa, and dairy industries. We also hit the road and were able to tour farms including dairy, carnations, pork, sugarcane, coffee, equine, cocoa, and avocado.
Alejandro Gomez, co-founder of Dibuffala, came to speak to our group. Dibuffala is a company that produces buffalo milk mozzarella, BUF mozzarella, which can be found in Wegmans stores in the United States. The female buffalo are a byproduct of the palm oil industry, where they use the males as draft animals. It struck me how this paradigm contrasted with the dairy industry where females are sought first for milk and the males are often the byproduct. Nonetheless, this company has found a way to add value to the milk produced and has found a way into the US market. It was also striking to hear about their work culture. They have a human, friendly, and open-door work environment. They strive to be the best of the best, seeking out experts and competitions to gain feedback on what works and tastes the best. Alejandro says they obsess over deliciousness. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see a buffalo dairy while we were there other than passing by some in a pasture from the bus.
We also heard from the Alpina group which is a large dairy company that is in Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. In Colombia there are around 700,000 farmers with a total production of 18 million liters per day. Approximately 82% of the farms are small, with less than 50 cows. They have low production with an average of 5 liters per cow per day. The average consumption per person is 142 liters per year per person, while the recommendation is 170 liters. Alpina has 550 direct farms and 1,200 indirect farms (across 32 associations). Some of the challenges faced by farmers in Colombia include labor and transportation. Much of the labor force in Colombia is very informal so many farms have a lot of turnover. The other challenge is the terrain. Most products are trucked as opposed to any extensive railroad system because of the challenges of several veins of the Andes running through the country.
On another day we visited a dairy farm outside of Bogotá. The farm milked around 75 Holstein cows on 45 hectares. The cows were rotationally grazed with a cycle of approximately 45 days. The 6-stall parlor was brought to the cows out on pasture twice a day with a draft horse and powered with a generator. During milking each cow was allocated different amounts of grain based on production level. The milk was transferred into cans, after which the cans were carted to the milk house by the horse and moved to a bulk tank through a suction hose. This farm had good production compared to the national average. The cows produced 20 liters per cow per day with 10,800 liters per hectare a year. The calves were kept with the cow for a couple of days and then fed twice a day in a pasture where they were kept individually. Cows that were in their 4th lactation and above were bred to beef breeds (Girolando) to minimize the number of replacements and diversified income. The herd was able to maintain fairly good quality measures (130,000 SCC) for their milk and their test was around 3.6% fat and 3.1% protein.
In Bogotá, the average max temperature is around 70° F year-round with lows keeping above 40°F, the elevation is approximately 8500 ft above sea level, and it’s close to the equator so daylight is around 12 hours year-round. It was a nice break from the North Country winter. It was fascinating to learn more about Colombian agriculture. There was certainly a diversity of crops that the country produces. Many of the farmers said that we were their first group to tour their farm, and they were excited and proud to host us.
— Sarah Morrison