EL CALAFATE, Santa Cruz. – An unprecedented productive project began to color the Santa Cruz steppe: They plant wheat, barley and oats 40 km from the Perito Moreno Glacier. The majority of this will go to a brand new state-owned feed plant in Río Gallegos.
While these first 360 hectares are at the forefront of dryland production in these latitudes, they are also the first link in the chain that combines public and private contributions with the aim of laying the foundation for a new economic matrix in the region.
In a chain that combines will, technology and knowledge with a strong local presence, the feed factory being built in Río Gallegos aims to produce 1,200 tons next season. It is estimated to process 800 tons of wheat and oats grown in a field near El Calafate, representing 70% of the plant’s total input needs..
How are the efforts combined? Santa Cruz Can SAU, It is a state-owned company created by the governor this year Claudio Vidal With the intention of promoting various productive projects, it provides machinery, equipment and the operating costs for the planting and harvesting carried out on the hectares donated by the producer Alejandro Bárcena, the owner Alice stayswhile AgroCalafate is a young company of professionals that contributes to the development of crops and the development of the plant with technical and professional support.
“AgroCalafate was born when I was studying in Esperanza, Santa Fe. Every time I returned to El Calafate, I saw signs that it was possible to produce here, from the pastures on the shoulder, from what I experienced and from what some producers tried. Among other things, I followed the annual crops for production and home consumption that they grew at Estancia Alice,” he recalls. Tomas Ciurlanti in dialogue with THE NATION, about the beginnings of the company, which is now a leader in dryland production in southern Patagonia.
Ciurlanti is two subjects short of qualifying as an agricultural scientist as he divides his life between Santa Cruz and Santa Fe. Between studies and work, together with Nicolás Zuber, a doctor of agricultural sciences, and the agronomist Ricardo Coggiola, he founded AgroCalafate with the aim of improving production systems through both technical and mechanical support. While supporting producers in Santa Fe, they were encouraged by the great challenge of grain production in southern Patagonia.
In the summer of 2021-2022, Ciurlanti began conducting larger trials and was responsible for pasture and crop production at Estancia Alice.
With his partners, he began to apply technology and agricultural management and create a record that allowed them to make decisions based on this information. In the 2023-2024 season, they managed to double the yield on the same cultivated area, adjusted the dates, carried out a soil analysis and were able to determine the fertilizer needs: it was a soil for which improvement had never been diagnosed. The earth reacted.
The results at Estancia Alice – which also has a strong tourism development profile – were outstanding and a provincial government official summoned him to Ciurlanti to learn about his profile and ideas. This led to an interview with Governor Claudio Vidal in Río Gallegos, who was interested in their activities and presented his agricultural production development plan.
“I always wanted to develop agricultural production in the province,” explains Ciurlanti, adding: “I always thought it was about finding a way around this.” At this first of several subsequent meetings with the governor, he learned about the forage crop project and a connection was formed with a common goal: produce grain in Patagonia.
“After consultations and analysis, we concluded that the only way to ensure that it does not rely on subsidies is to produce 70% of the raw materials the plant needs in the province and we presented to Vidal our primary production proposal based on production in this specific field where we have already stabilized the grain and so the grain production project was born.” Details.
This is how this private and state agricultural production project was born: the Alice Ranch made 400 hectares available for grain production, the state company provided machinery, inputs, fertilizers and labor, and AgroCalafate managed and advised both the production in the field and the fine-tuning of the operation of the balancing plant, marketing channels and the flow of inputs and products.
Production in Patagonia has its peculiarities, as has already been tested at Estancia Alice. The planting bed is prepared in the fall. After winter, the soil profile usually fills up again with meltwater, so planting takes place in spring and harvesting begins in mid-January.
This season, the oat seeds of the Inta Cristal and Inta Calen varieties, distributed by Guasch Semillas, will be planted. For wheat, they planted the Pretal variety from Buck Semillas and the Ceibo wheat from Don Mario.
Through the area of Estancia Alice, which is located just a few kilometers from the entrance to Los Glaciares National Park, an isohyette of 350 mm per year flows, which mostly falls in autumn-winter. “This water remains frozen on the surface during the winter, so we can start planting in the spring at ‘field capacity’, meaning with excellent water content in the soil profile.” Ciurlanti details.
According to the description of agronomists, the soil in this area consists of sandy loam, the most exceptional feature of which is the organic matter content of over 9%. “We do not use irrigation, the crop manages to complete its cycle in dry conditions,” they indicate, while they hope to start harvesting from mid-January.
By that date, two combine harvesters will have arrived in Patagonia from the humid pampas: a New Holland TC59 and another TC57, with which they hope to give a boost to other producers who dare to harvest grain in the south.
According to forecasts, the plant will produce 1,200 tonnes of balanced feed in the first year, processed from almost 800 tonnes of locally produced wheat and oats. In parallel, the staff who serve it are well trained, the production of food is anchored in the production systems Return message This allows them to know how the balanced product reacted in sheep and cattle.
The idea for 2027 is to increase the plant’s working capacity to achieve 2,500 tons of balanced feed, which would require 1,750 tons of wheat, barley and oats produced in the province to provide nutrition for the province’s sheep and cattle systems and to help improve the nutrients of the Patagonian livestock, among other things.
The aim is to increase the factory’s supply to 90/95% of the 70% of raw materials covered this season. They are also working on pea grain trials. In this way, they should only bring the vitamin core to Santa Cruz to prepare the balanced food.
The project was presented at the end of November during the Field Day “Challenges and Opportunities for Production in Santa Cruz”, where Vidal and the President of the Argentine Rural Society (SRA), Nicolás Pino, were present, along with producers, technicians and young people from the region.
The proposal was organized by AgroCalafate, Estancia Alice and Santa Cruz Podemos SAU and brought together participants interested in developing new production models for the province, particularly related to the production of feed and cereals in the Andean foothills.
In line with the first conversation he had with Ciurlanti, Vidal stressed that day the importance of promoting initiatives that strengthen rural work and productive diversification: “For many years they told us that this was not possible. I believe that it is possible if the will is there, if the desire to work is there and we are convinced that effort is the way.”
Vidal stressed the need to move towards a model that prioritizes production as the engine of development: “The state can’t do more. We have to produce, we have to work. We can’t continue to be the province with the most public servants, we’ll never get anywhere like that.”
Meanwhile, in January, tourists driving through the area on the way to the glacier may see an unthinkable postcard in the distance in the pristine Patagonian landscape: a combine harvester growing wheat, barley and oats.
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