Class members inspect an onion field.
 |
Attendance at 7:00 a.m. breakfast was a little light. As
7:30 a.m. rolled around, so did the Illinois Agriculture Leadership Class of 1998. The
incredible reception at the Vina Tarapaca Guest House the evening before had left some of
our class members a few hours short of sleep. At 8:00 a.m., everyone was on the bus on the
way to the El Paico poultry processing plant, the first visit in our morning, as guests of
Agricola Ariztia Ltda. We were greeted by Mr. Manuel Ariztia and one of his sons, Paulo. |
Before touring the processing plant, we learned about the
company. Founded in 1936, the company includes the chicken and turkey production and
processing enterprises, plus several diversified farms. In total, the two plants process
nearly 50 million chickens and 1.5 million turkeys each year. Eighteen company owned
distribution facilities throughout Chile move the poultry to market.
Poultry production at Agricola Ariztia requires the purchase of 3,300 short tons of
grain each month; mostly corn. While much of the feed is purchased from within Chile, the
United States is also a regular supplier. Corn is important for chickens produced for the
Chilean market because they value yellow chickens. Wheat can be used as a substitute grain
for chickens produced for the European market. One source of corn for the poultry
operation at Agricola was our next stop--the Quilhuica farm (pictured below). The farm
manager, Mr. Jose Gonzalez, joined us for a bus tour of the farm. The tour was marked by
many stops to get a closer look at onion, potato, and corn production. |
Chairpersons: Cheryl Wachenheim, John
Kuhfuss |
IALP Class with Ricardo Ariztia
 |
The group also saw the pepper harvest and the pivot irrigation system
used on this irrigated farm. The farm depends quite heavily on the use of natural
fertilizers and supports a herd of 500 cows. The calves are sent to a feedlot and
eventually sold as meat.
Our next stop was the Parrilladas a La Argentina, where we dined on poultry
produced by Agricola Ariztia. John Kuhfuss got everyone back on the bus on time to head
toward the farm of Ricardo Ariztia, President of the Sociedad Nacional De Agricultura
(this is a similar organization to our American Farm Bureau). |
