Last month I had the amazing opportunity to be among those representing
Canadian Angus in Uruguay, South America at the 2019 World Angus Secretariat. From
the moment we arrived in Montevideo we were treated like royalty. The Society
of Aberdeen Angus Breeders of Uruguay put on a phenomenal event, and should be
extremely proud of this year’s Secretariat.
Some of you may have followed my adventures on Twitter and
Facebook, but for those who did not, here are some quick facts about the 2019
Secretariat, and cattle in Uruguay:
- - we travelled over 2700 kms touring the Uruguayan countryside. Green grass and cattle everywhere, 4 fantastic ranches with both red and black Angus cattle were presented to us.
- - 21 delegate countries participated in the tours and conference. The networking and education potential was unreal
- - throughout the 14 days we were there, over 7500 people participated in various parts of the Secretariat, 12 members from Canada were in attendance
- - Uruguay has approximately 3 million people, but has over 10 million head of cattle, that is more than 2x the number of cattle in Canada, in a country less than 1/3 the size of the province of Alberta
- - Angus and Angus influence cattle make up over 60% of the beef herd in Uruguay
- - Angus cattle in Uruguay are very similar to Angus in North America (a lot of North American sires and dams in their pedigrees), they are perhaps 1 frame score size smaller, most cattle don’t have their first calf until 3 years of age
- - grass grows 365 days a year
- - 75% of beef produced in Uruguay is exported
- - Uruguayans eats 61 kgs of beef per capita per year, I think we ate almost that much in the 14 days we were there!
- - Past President David Bolduc and I can attest to the fact that Uruguayans also serve great Ice Cream!
I will leave you this month with some photos from the 2019
World Angus Secretariat.
To quote our hosts….
Uruguay-the Last Big
Farm
Trevor Welch
President
