Farming 101

Day 2
Written By: Samantha Klaver
Monday, December 14, 2009

In Belize, we are on Belizean time. Today, we learned that things move at a much more relaxed and laid back pace. Many of us got up to swim and bird watch once again before it started to rain. We all had another fantastic Belizean breakfast that we picked off the menu rather than buffet style which we enjoyed yesterday. We have all enjoyed the many different fresh juices in Belize with many of our meals, including lime, cantaloupe, watermelon, orange and pineapple! At breakfast we met Jorge who was a past SHARE sponsored scholarship student, who now attends post-secondary school in San Ignacio and he travelled with us for the day. During breakfast it started to rain again, so Les said we wouldn’t be leaving at soon as we originally had planned, so after packing up for the day and taking our packed lunch made by the hotel, we headed out to start our day.
Our first stop of the day was Running W Ranch, a stop that I was looking very forward to. While Les found our tour guide, the head cowboy at the ranch, we toured the meat shop and after converting the prices, we discovered that much of the meat was much less expensive than what we are used to at home. The meat products that they sold were beef, pork and lamb. Some items that we thought were unusual included cow hooves, butt bacon (which we later discovered was back bacon) and there was no pepperettes, which was something that many of us were looking for. Shortly after, we were well on our way out to the pasture while our guide explained to us that we would be learning about the breeding and feeding program. We took a quick look at the feed mixer and learned that Running W Ranch uses a mixture of molasses and urea. The molasses comes from Orange Walk and is a by-product at the sugar mill. Eight buckets of molasses and twenty pounds of urea is mixed together and given to the steers to help them gain more weight. Right now, molasses is five cents per pound but the supply is short because the factory is currently closed for renovations – it will be reopening again in less than a week. The herd consists of Nelore which is a Brazilian Brahma breed, a breed of Brahma and Angus. They started using crosses to improve marbling and quality in their meat. Since this a relatively new change, the Belizean people have not experienced the new improved quality meat as it goes straight to the restaurant at the San Ignacio Hotel which we are staying at – many of us have already eaten steaks from the restaurant there. At the age of one and a half years, the cattle are slaughtered. The farm is managed very well; only three cowboys work on the ranch, compared to much smaller ranches having around ten cowboys. Running W Ranch feels it is unnecessary to have that many cowboys as they have a great system setup and very well trained workers. Cattle are rotated through pastures every seven days and within that time frame, the pasture grows back on a 21 day cycle. The grass that they use in their pastures is a very fast growing grass. Two hundred cattle are pastured on eighty acres at a time. The Running W Ranch consists of approximately one thousand cattle. We had the opportunity to watch one of the cowboys herd a group of cattle to move to the next pasture.
After asking many questions about the ranch, we headed to the back of the ranch to see the sheep. The flock consists of Barbado Black Bellies (hair sheep) crossed with a Dorper (wool breed). The flock is about two hundred head. They sell at a live weight of approximately $2.50 per pound and a ready to eat price of $6.00 per pound all of which are Belizean dollars. They use many of the same medications and vaccinations as we do in Canada. The sheep are fed a long grass, elephant grass, chopped up mixed with minerals. Unlike Canada, there is no specific market or demand for them at Christmas and Easter. Usually every five months the sheep are ready for market or slaughter. The sheep barn is cleaned out once a month and the slats are removed and underneath is cleaned. This system works well as it keeps the sheep clean and fewer illnesses and diseases are spread.
After seeing some very successful farm operations that are run very differently than what we are used to seeing and taking note of some ideas and practices that may work for our own animals, we thanked Running W Ranch for the tour and their time. Next, we travelled to the Spanish Lookout. We took another water ferry across the Belize River in order to continue the drive to Spanish Lookout, a Mennonite community. Many of the Mennonite farmers in Belize actually originally lived in Manitoba! It was like we had entered a whole new world. The buildings were much more modern, the land was much cleaner and houses were more consistently spread out. It reminded many of us of home and driving into the Elora or St Jacobs area. Being that we were still on Belize time, we headed to the school first to make sure we wouldn’t miss them during lunch. The school was called Los Tombos Public School. It contained form one to six, they are almost equivalent to our grades in Canada. The teachers had all the students come out to the pavilion like structure, with a thatched roof, while it was explained to them who we were, where we were from and why we were there. We had brought a large variety of school supplies, soccer and volleyballs, games and other sports equipment. The look on the faces of the students was so heart warming. It was nothing like any of us had ever experienced. It was a great feeling to bring them items that we take for granted that they were so appreciative of. It was a good reminder to us to be thankful for what we have. After the kids settled down from excitement, we had the chance to meet them and learn about their education system. After this schooling, many of the children will not have any more education. We learned that the students all came from large families some from families of about fourteen. The younger students have not learned English yet so the older students had to translate what was being said. The students took the soccer and volleyballs and put them to use right away. They really enjoy soccer and a group of the older students recently won a soccer tournament.
After saying goodbye to the students, we loaded back in the van and headed back into town. We made a pit stop before heading to Frank and Bertha Martman’s house; they moved from Manitoba and graciously welcomed us to eat our lunches at their home. We were very thankful that they opened up their home as it kept us out of the rain while we ate the lunch prepared by the hotel. We learned that they have seven kids that live all over Canada, the US and Belize. Two live in Alymer and St Jacobs, once again, the world is proven to be small! Bertha showed us pictures of their family. She shared with us lots of insight to their farm. They have a tv monitor in their kitchen and a video camera in their barn so that they can see and hear if there are any problems in the chicken barn. They told us stories of wild animals getting into their chicken barn in the past, but now that they have the screen in the house they don’t have to go out to the broiler barn to check every night. They have about eighty cattle all which are out a short drive from their house. We had a nice visit with the Bartman’s before heading back out for an afternoon full of many more agricultural businesses and sites that reminded us of home.