Inside a 9,000ha Brazilian ranch battling tight profit margins and environmental pressures
Roberto Coelho runs a beef and rice production enterprise in the Pantanal. Here, he talks about his ‘droughtmaster’ cattle, how he sells horses for work and sport and why he won’t be carbon farming
As you approach Fazenda San Francisco, you’d be forgiven for thinking you had just entered a nature sanctuary as opposed to a major beef and rice production enterprise.
The wildlife meets you at the gate, with capybaras and macaws part of the welcome party.
The fazenda (farm) is run by Roberto Coelho along with his family and team of staff in one of the world’s richest environmental assets, Brazil’s Pantanal, with the region home to 2,500 fazendas.
The farm has a total area of 8,970 hectares, consisting of 43pc natural reserves (3,888ha), 30pc rice fields (2,765ha), 25pc pasture (2,300ha) and 2pc other land. When Roberto’s grandfather bought the farm in 1975, the area was 100pc forest.
Roberto now runs a herd of 1,000 cows and there are almost 4,500 head of cattle on the farm year round. Livestock graze 2,300ha with a stocking rate of 1.98 head/ha.
The main breeds on the farm are the Nelore, which originate from India, and the Senepol, originally from the Caribbean.
Roberto describes the cross between the breeds as the ‘droughtmaster’ due to its ability to withstand severe heat and low water supplies.
He insists that the Senepol is a very adaptive animal that can work at pasture with good meat quality.
The Senepol Nelore cross is being promoted as 30pc more profitable in beef herds in Brazil.
Brazil’s Senepol breeders association will tell you that this industrial crossbreeding is not an option but a necessity in order to secure the opening of new markets to meet the required quality.
High meat quality
The main traits the breed are being sold on are above average weight gain, early slaughter, high meat quality and docility.
The breed has been developed to cope with the extreme environment of the Pantanal with long periods of drought and floods, combined with scorching heat.
Roberto’s farm employs 12 people to work with the herd, with eight men on horseback every day.
The herd is bred based on an Embrapa environmental cattle selection programme which aims to breed smaller cows and tackle the soft hooves trait.
Roberto’s main focus is on birth weight of his calves as well as 12-week weight, along with testicle size of bulls.
All animals are left uncastrated in order to keep the hormone balance intact and prevent the undesirable growth in height.
Roberto runs two cattle finishing systems with 1,100 head fully at pasture and 1,000 undergoing final feedlot finishing. Cattle at pasture have a daily liveweight gain of less than one kilo.
The average killout for cattle at pasture is 54pc, selling at €863/head, giving a profit of €54/head. Cattle spend 18 months at pasture, with an average weight of 552kg.
In the feedlot, cattle have a sale weight of 562.8kg with a killout at 56pc, selling at €905/hea, making a loss of 0.90c/ head. Cattle spend three months in the feedlot having spent the previous 11 months at pasture.
The farm’s total cattle income is €1,853,687, minus costs of €1,795,251, giving a profit of just €58,436. This equates to a profit of almost €29/ha.
The farm receives no subsidies but the Government has introduced tax breaks for various environmental actions. The Government along with JBS also provide an early slaughter bonus.
Roberto warns that JBS does everything it can to control prices using their own feedlot supply.
Roberto also sells his pedigree breeding Senepol bulls and cows. Bulls are sold at an average of €2,228 and cows are sold at an average of €1,300.
The bulls have a high libido, with the ability to sire between 25-30 females initially and 45-50 when fully matured. Senepol calves are born light at 28-38kg but wean heavy at 225-270kg.
Roberto has stopped selling soy due to cost of production and is reverting land back to pasture but says he may consider soy again in October if costs change.
There are no restrictions on the quantity of fertiliser that can be used on the farm.
‘I’m an old guy so I rely on others for what’s happening in the world but when I saw the contract I said no, it’s not workable’
Roberto explained that liming the fields is not required as the required minerals reach the field during the wet season.
Roberto sells horses for sport and work. Work horses are bred for daily field jobs with cattle, having been adapted to the region’s high temperatures.
Sport horses are bred for agility, and involved in intense activities such as long roping.
The farm currently has 2,600ha of rice fields, but due to low prices, more fields are being reverted to pasture land.
Latest harvest
In the latest harvest, 2-3 tonnes of rice was lost due to high winds giving a total harvest of 5.8t/ha, but during a typical year Roberto harvests 8t/ha.
The land is currently being cultivated now during the dry spell and will be planted in July before harvest in December.
Roberto uses a low-cost method of weed control, insisting that: “The more I kill with the plough the less chemicals I need.”
The rice fields are artificially irrigated with water taken from Miranda River.
When the pumps are operational, they can take 6,000L of water from the river every second. Water is recycled back to the river.
Roberto has previously considered getting involved in carbon farming, but with brokers requesting contracts of 40 years he has decided against it.
“All sales made by them, they will certify and I will give them 20pc of what I’m going to get,” he says.
“I’m like a prisoner, they control the sale.
“I’m an old guy so I rely on others for what’s happening in the world but when I saw the contract I said no, it’s not workable.”
A fazenda is a plantation found throughout Brazil during the colonial period, 16th-18th centuries, but nowadays, fazenda denotes any kind of farm in Brazilian Portuguese.
In the past, fazendas created a huge quantity of commodities for Brazilian trade, but also led to intensification of slavery.
More than 1.4 million Africans were forced into slavery in Brazil in the last 50 years of the trade, and even after the trans-Atlantic slave trade ended, slavery continued in the country until 1888, when it was abolished.