April Hemmes, the 2011 Midwest region America’s Farmers Mom of the Year winner, is traveling to Brazil to learn about the country's agriculture. Just like her trip to Africa last year - she's blogging her experience. Follow her adventures!
Day 3, we left Brasilia for a lovely five-hour bus ride to the farm of an Illinois farmer who owns 30,000 acres here in Brazil.
But first, a few fun facts about the city of Brasilia. Brasilia is the capital of Brazil, and it is laid out in the shape of a cross. The city was built between 1955 and 1960 and was designed for 500,000 people – but today has grown to 2.5 million.
Now, back to the farm. The farmer told us when he bought the land in Brazil, he thought he would just raise soybeans. But he found cotton is a great crop because of the favorable conditions, so next year he will be 50% cotton, and the rest will be corn and soybeans. Corn harvest will start next month, followed by soybeans, then cotton for the next three months. He also told us it took about 6-7 years to get the land up to fertility!
We also learned that in Brazil, if you continuously plant cotton, you can’t leave any part of the breeding plant in the field because of the Boll Weevil. Thanks to the work of the U.S. government and farmers, it has been eradicated in the U.S., but not here.
My favorite quote from this particular farmer: “Cotton spends the first 60 days figuring out how to die, and then you spend the last 60 days figuring how to kill it.”
We head back to Brasilia tomorrow – another five-hour bus ride. Then off to the state of Motto Grasso where the big farms are!
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