MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's flock recovering but?

Argentina's sheep numbers currently stand at 13,5 million with excellent prospects of expansion if certain conditions are attainable, according to several papers presented in a sheep and wool conference during the recent Palermo Agricultural Show.

At the beginning of the twentieth century Argentina had 74 million sheep and was one of the leading world wool exporters. But numbers kept contracting mainly because of unwise fiscal and monetary policies that favored other industries.

The turning point seems to have occurred three years ago when the melting of the Argentine economy which adjusted costs and profits. By then the flock had dropped to less than 14 million and of the 13,000 sheep farmers left in Patagonia, 8,000 hardly manage to scrap a living.

But drastic circumstances forced drastic changes and in the last thirty years fine wool production (Merino) expanded from 30 to 52% of the annual Argentine clip, while crossbreds wool dropped from 46% to 30% and coarse wool from 17 to 3,8%. Besides Argentina has a European Union annual quota of 23,000 tons of ovine meat and Italian textile tycoon Benetton who has over 200,000 sheep in Patagonia is planning to build an abattoir and tannery in Comodoro Rivadavia valued in several million US dollars.

However according to Ing. Alejandro Duhart, president of the Merino Breeders Association, most of the flock is now concentrated in Rio Negro and Chubut two Patagonian provinces where alternative activities to sheep farming are very limited.

And if sheep farming is to expand it must be undertaken on a strict cost-results business analysis aiming at increasing profits and "not just filling poor soil paddocks with sheep", indicated Mr. Duhart. "The humid Pampa is an option but sheep will have to compete with soybeans, and competing means improving breeding efficiency. New Zealand productivity is 130% per animal per year, while in Argentina 60%", cautioned Mr. Duhart who added he favored importing more prolific breeds that have a greater and more efficient pasture to meat, wool and milk conversion. "Soybean farmers look for the best seeds, best technology, best way to reduce costs and optimize crops, that is how the farm business and the sheep industry must work", emphasized Mr. Duhart.

The Merino Breeders Association president also presented numbers and charts showing that sheep farming in good pastures is more profitable than fattening cattle or agriculture, since the "initial outlay is significant but drops considerably in the following years while the other two options demand hefty investments every year or even twice a year".