Marcelo Scelso is a mechanical engineer and today combines iron and field. The company manages two family farms in the Pilar-Río Segundo area and provides harvesting, planting and fertilization services. His strength is machines, but agriculture plays a central role in his daily life.
In an area where water restrictions dictate the productive pulse, Scelso has been betting on crops for more than a decade. Rye and vetch perform important functions: they protect stubble from the wind, improve infiltration in drought-affected soils, and contribute to weed control in systems where wheat is not profitable.
“The key is timing: sow early, in April, to get roots in before the severe drought, and dry before the end of August to avoid water costs that endanger the following corn or soybeans.”
From engineering it is the method that saves it: process engineering, preventive maintenance, organization and planning capacity. “I’ve been using reengineering since my career: taking something that already exists and rethinking it to make it work better.” In this sense, participating in the regional Aapresid Rio II with a strong technical profile is the key to training and exchanges that accelerate the learning curve.
In Bahía Blanca, Guillermo Fortunato decided to give up the practice of law to devote himself to rural life. The company cultivates about 1,300 hectares in Coronel Dorrego in mixed systems that integrate barley, bread and durum wheat, corn, sunflowers, vetch and livestock in green fields and stubble.
The integration process was carried out through trial and error: intensification sequences with vetch crops, alone or in combination with some grasses, used as fodder and then dried and left for coarse cultivation. Although The strategy works, admit adjustments need to be made: “Explore other crops or timing of implementation and even evaluate summer alternatives, a challenge in an area where the greatest water deficit occurs in summer,” he explains.
The exchange with other producers from their region – Bahía Blanca “Ricardo Ochoa” – plays a role in this path: “In this area, historically focused on fine crops, some are already working on summer service crops. Low-density corn has also gained momentum, where winter service crops can play a strategic role, but always pay attention to the timing of drying so as not to give up water. That is why it is important to participate in these areas where contact is made with disruptive and innovative strategies.”
What do you take away from your legal training? The answer is simple: the ability to analyze multiple scenarios before making a decision. “In law, as in practice, not everything is linear. The ‘it depends’ thing forces you to look at all the variables,” he explains.
Valentino Bossio is an aeronautical engineer and worked in aircraft factories for more than a decade before returning to his town in Córdoba, Adelia María, to join the family business and join the regional Aapresid Adelia María, looking for technical and emotional support. “The Regional is a space where we can share mistakes and lessons learned, where we can understand that you are not alone, but that there are others who are on the same path,” he explains.
His time in the industry has shaped him: order, processes and quality control. “Aviation operates without any room for error. “I brought this method to Agro,” he says. Accustomed to meticulous and organized environments, he transferred this logic to agricultural production, reorganizing daily management and laying the foundation for new developments.
This approach led to the creation of a balanced feed plant according to industrial criteria, which allowed the company to integrate agriculture, grain marketing, transport and cattle feed, thereby increasing the value of its own raw materials. The return, which was then lived with uncertainty, eventually became a natural bridge between two worlds that were far from contradicting each other, but rather strengthening each other.
In agriculture, Years ago they optimized their crop rotations with crops on their own fieldswhere they have achieved conclusive results: better infiltration, lower weed pressure, fewer applications and differences of up to 2000 kg/ha in maize compared to plots without cover.
“The challenge is to include these crops in the leased area, which represents 80% of the total area, but this is complicated by the cost and inflexibility of many field owners,” he admits. With this in mind, the company is considering fully covering the cost of crops, convinced of the positive impact they have on both yield and soil health.
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