The beginning of the best day of the trip started with the bus pulling into El Pariso with horses being saddled. I was excited to see Jose’s breeding program and just what kind of horses they had because I have grown up with horses. I’ve never seen any criollos before, so I was interested to see how they were built and how they moved. Being able to ride around the farm was one of the best parts of the trip. Jose’s cattle operation was a nicer operation, I thought it was similar to how the US raises and creep feeds our calves. Additionally, the scale of the operation was insane almost 10,000 acres, I can’t even imagine that. We were able to drive around a piece of his property but I know there is so much more! Being able to ride around in the truck with Jose was even more enjoyable because as we drove by parts of the land he would point out what used to be old houses or what was growing where. His operation included everything you can think of, cows, horses, sheep, and soybeans we even got to see some of the rice fields on his property. One of the main reasons I wanted to come on this trip was to see the different beef operations and this day did not disappoint. We started off strong in the morning with beef and horses and we ended strong with beef at Los Tilos. I loved that when we got to Los Tilos it felt like we were already family, and they hadn’t just met us. The incredible work they have done to cut down on the masiaga is groundbreaking for people in their area. They created a whole new device because there was a need for it. The fact that we pulled out cards and started playing is just a testament to how welcoming they were.
