All in all, it was a great event. So good to see so many of our Latin American roundtables and members represented there.
For those of us from other regions, it was fascinating to learn about the context in Colombia, so different from other regions that it is hard to know where to start comparisons or drawing up a list of differences. Largely in respect of cattle production, it is hard to separate that from development of the country as a whole and its political history.
Although we were not exposed to it, the armed conflict involving FARC that ended in principle with the 2016 peace accord has continued to impact the country through dissident groups. Both violence and displacement still affect parts of the country. Added to this are the approximately 2 million Venezuelan refugees fleeing the political and economic crisis in that country.
These factors all relate to sustainability in its widest sense, but specifically to social and environmental impacts, both of which are considerable. I will not go into details, but suffice it to say that this presents the Colombian Roundtable with a context quite different from the majority of other national roundtables and it is likely to continue to affect the ability of the beef sector on its own to influence development to the extent it would like.
Our tour took us to Montería in Córdoba, and through some of the surrounding country. Montería is on the Sinu river and in one of the most productive livestock producing departments of the country.
The region is largely characterised by dry tropical forest, modified to varying extent by agricultural and other developments, with seasonal rainfall in Apr-May and Oct-Nov and relatively little variation in seasonal temperatures (hottest months being February and March at 25-33°C / 77-91°F, compared to November when the highs peak at 30°C / 86°F). The topography varies from plains closer to the river to rolling hills.
We saw a variety of livestock, which speaks very much to the need for adapted species and breeds to the local environment and aligns well with our efficiency and innovation principle and criteria.
Two of the farms we visited run water buffalos for both milk and meat production. Not surprisingly, water buffalos are well suited to tropical environments where water abounds, and indeed if they don’t have water or mud pools to wallow in, they suffer from the effects of heat. However in more humid areas, water buffalos’ rich milk and climate adaptation make them more productive than dairy cows in terms of total milk solids and fat content.
The buffalo in Colombia are generally descended from Indian stock, some via Brazil. Many local ranchers run various bos indicus breeds with Brahman, Nellore and Guzerat influence. However, the Spanish brought cattle to the Americas from Europe centuries ago, and the descendants of these are termed criollos (creole in English, literally meaning a local descendant of Europeans).
Over time natural selection has adapted some of these breeds extremely well to the local climate and environment. With thin skin and loose dewlap, very short hair and greater number of sweat glands, they are also relatively resistant to ticks and tick borne diseases, have a good libido and do well on relatively low quality forage.
In addition to the full criollos breeds, Raza Blanco orejinegro, Romosinuano and Costeño con cuernos, we also saw the composite breed Velásquez which includes 25% Romosinuano, 25% Red Brahman and 50% Red Poll genetics.
This stabilised breed brings additional hybrid vigour to the adaptations of Brahman and Criollo, combined with increased beef quality associated with the Red Poll. It has proven very popular as a crossbred sire.
As climate change impacts Colombia and worldwide, these genetics are going to be a valuable asset to adapt. Both of the buffalo producers we met realised that they could do more with buffalo in their specific environment than with cattle, and this is likely to be the case in many tropical regions in the future.
You may recall the FDA approval of Acceligen’s CRISPR cattle last year, and the specific gene that they inserted was for short coat as an adaptation to hot climates.
I would like to thank the Colombian Roundtable, and particularly Germán Serrano for all they did to make this tour happen, and to make it such an enjoyable success.
I’ll hand over to Josefina to talk more about the conversations around biodiversity and forest protection that were a significant contribution to the symposium and tour.
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