“One day to another”. The descendant of Italians who made a radical change in his field Leo Alloati has in Santa Fe an agroecological approach for livestock and dairy production By Carlos Marin Moreno

“I am the fifth generation linked to agriculture. My great-great-grandfather came from Italy in 1894 and settled in Colonia Raquel, in the center of Santa Fe. Then my great-grandfather, with brothers and sisters, bought a field in Colonia Tacurales, further west, 30 kilometers from Sunchales and 75 from Rafaela,” he says. Leo Alloati, 43 years old, producer responsible for 400 hectares in that area.

“They started farming – mainly wheat – on plots with quite rough soils, ranging from sodic saline in the lower areas to class II and III in the best parts,” he adds. “They gave up a lot on the crops because the rainfall regime is very variable in the area: from 30 to 120mm depending on the month; For this reason, they were migrating to a mixed model with beef farming. And over time, livestock production became predominant, with agriculture as a complementary activity,” Add.

“Then my father continued with the field. During his administration, soybeans and sorghum were introduced as additions to traditional wheat and flax. Meanwhile, to join the company, I studied at the agrotechnical college, from which I graduated in 1999, with the idea of ​​continuing with the activities of cattle breeding and grain production with my father,” he continues.

“TO END THE PLANS”: A MAYOR WANTS TO REVOLUTIONIZE A TOWN WITH AN AMBITIOUS OBJECTIVE

“In 2006 we made a change: we started the dairy activity, reducing the breeding with Hereford. The necessary investment was made with the sale of part of the farm and leveraged with a loan from the CFI for entrepreneurship, managed through the province of Santa Fe,” he recalls.

“We finished installing the dairy farm and suffered a serious flood throughout the field the following year. We had to take the cows to another higher place, so as not to abandon the activity we had started. And we stayed there until the water receded and the field became muddy again,” continue.

“We returned to the original property, but a year later it flooded again. We were only able to stabilize in 2008, to develop meat and dairy farming, combined with conventional agriculture, as done by most producers in the area,” he points out.

rudder stroke

In 2019 came the time for drastic change. “When observing the soils, plants and the environment, I saw growing problems due to extractive production, highly dependent on chemicals, with deterioration of the original conditions and loss of productivity. So, with the whole family, we decided to turn the helm and turn 100% of the field surface to agroecological production in a drastic way, from one day to the next,” Leo recalls.

Once the decision was made, it had to be implemented. “I started to figure out how to carry out this type of production, which I had no knowledge of. After consulting many sources, I arrived at Brian Murphy, an agronomist from Santa Fe recognized for his knowledge of agroecological production,” he explains. “He came to the field, we toured it and he asked me: ‘Where do we start?’ That’s the most common way to implement these projects: start gradually.”

The Alloati family farm has 400 hectares, 200 dedicated to dairy production and 200 in rotation that includes livestock and agriculture. In 2019 they decided to transform the 400 hectares into agroecological ones; change the form of what was being done on 100% of the surface.

Soils and pastures with another use

The first step was taken on the ground. “More and more fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides would have to be applied in the field because the system was asking for it to achieve high production. Faced with these problems, Murphy told me: ‘First we have to recover the soils’ because there is a motto that says ‘healthy soil, healthy plant, healthy animal, healthy man’, remembers Alloati.

That is, “the basis of everything is having a healthy soil, with a microbial population, biological activity and a high level of organic matter,” he highlights. Recent measurements show that the soils in central Santa Fe have lost 30% of their original organic matter. “We constantly complain about the problems caused by excess or lack of rain, but we forget that a large part of the fault is ours, that we deteriorate the properties of the soil, especially the organic matter content”Alloati laments. In summary: soils must be brought to correct levels of organic matter so that the biological component can develop, the starting point for plant and animal production.

With this objective, and to promote diversity, “we left behind the monophytic alfalfa pastures, to move on to associations with grasses (cebadilla, fescue); cruciferous (chicory) and legumes (clovers, lotus and melilotus). These mixtures allow for greater root density and carbon capture, with the production of exudates that contribute to the accumulation of organic matter,” highlights the businessman.

The Alloati family’s milk and meat production system is mainly pastoral: 90% of the diet comes from the fields and the remaining 10% is supplemented at a certain period of the year, with their own corn. With this diet, Alloati maintains a load of 1.7-1.8 dairy cows per hectare. The pastures are used with good development, after which there is a rest period of 70 days in spring and summer, and 90 days in autumn and winter.

Production per cow with the mainly pastoral system was slightly reduced compared to the previous mixed system, with the contribution of balanced feed and silage, but the final economic result did not fall due to savings in inputs (fertilizers, herbicides, balanced feed, etc.). That is to say, “the agroecological system of lower production is compensated by the lower cost of inputs, by the improvement of the soil and by the long-term environmental improvement, an important intangible,” Alloati’s arguments

Biological weed control

Currently Alloati does not use herbicides or mechanical work to control pasture weeds, except for occasional escapes. “The rest periods of the pastures are so long that the biomass produced is such that it does not allow the development of barabal, capín, partridge leg or gramón,” he maintains.

Alloati developed an absorbent crossbreeding program with semen from Normandy bulls.

The use of pastures is with a high load, but allowing the plants to develop a lot before grazing: “We eat alfalfa with 14-16 knots versus the 8-9 historically recommended. Then, the cow can choose, consumes the most tender and leaves a remainder for coverage and increased soil organic matter. It is a change of paradigm and vision: grass that does not rise is not loss; It is the previous step to increasing organic matter,” distinguishes the producer. He also does not use mechanical weed control to avoid attacking forage plants again after the cut caused by grazing.

Breed adapted to the pastoral system

In a purely pastoral dairy system imitating rational Voisin grazing as much as possible, a smaller cow was needed, with fewer requirements, rustic and with good legs that would allow it to walk a lot to feed itself. Alloati a chose the Normando breed, a French genetic that works very well in difficult mountainous areas.

“Together with the Select Debernardi team we analyzed genetic alternatives for this system and we leaned towards the Normando breed, which has lower production than the Holland, but with a greater amount of solids in the milk. In addition, it has a more butchery conformation, which allows it to better defend the commercialization of males,” Leo differentiates.

“I started absorbent crossbreeding three years ago with semen from bulls of that breed. I still do not have a completely defined Norman, but I take advantage of its advantages of high fertility, always good body condition, which facilitates pregnancy, resistance to heat stress and excellent health. All of this generates a stable production that allows for a greater load per hectare, as it has lower body requirements,” observes Alloati.

Ecology throughout the field

Alloati’s ecological spirit manifests itself in other areas of its company. It develops a collective calf rearing system closely linked to animal welfare. “Being separated from the mother is a strong stress for the calf, which can be partially attenuated by interacting with other animals of the same age in the first months of life,” says Alloati.

Milk is supplied with nipples to simulate breastfeeding with the mother’s nipples; In addition, it generates saliva that stimulates rumen activity. The businessman is also testing the addition of efficient microorganisms to drinking water, which would have a positive effect in preventing microbial or parasitic infections in the guachera.

In the search for a circular economy, the Alloati incorporated a biodigester, so as not to have open pits generating methane into the atmosphere and the proliferation of insects with the slurry.

The biodigester is 35 meters long by three meters wide and three meters deep, and has a capacity of 250,000 liters. It is buried two meters to keep the temperature constant. The gas produced is used for heating and heating water. The digestate is distributed in the plots as biofertilizer.

The corn produced by the Alloati starts from a non-hybrid seed. It is a variety that allows it to be planted the following year and produces grain with a high protein and energy level. It can yield 5000-6000kg/ha versus 6000-7000 that commercial hybrids in the area achieve.

It uses non-transgenic soybean seeds from the Iridio, Platino and Don Mario 48 cultivars, a primitive variety from the farm. The production has a special market with a differentiated value that compensates for the lower yield compared to a current commercial cultivar.

Alloati also plants a few hectares of millet as a summer crop. Once harvested, it is peeled and sold for human consumption as speciality.

This note was originally published on January 8, 2024

Carlos Marin Moreno

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