Day 7 Falcao and GDM Seeds

We left our hotel in Guarapuava in the Parana state early in morning and traveled for six hours through Santa Catarina to visit a farm near Passo Fundo in the state of Rio Grande du Sul.  We took a quick lunch at a mall along the way that had Subway, McDonalds and Burger King.  A couple of us managed to get an order at Burger King without an interpreter.  Generally the land was rolling in this region with almost everything planted to soybeans.  There was only an occassional corn field.  The farm was the operation of Sementes Falaco, a soybean farm that has done a lot of soil management work.  Fernanda Falcao and her father Mr. Falcao made a presentation describing their efforts to improve soil quality.  They have implemented a combination of carefully designed terraces, no tillage and cover cropping to build soil organic matter and reduce erosion.  They have documented reduced nutrient losses and the ability to save water on the farm.  They have seen consistent improvements in soil test levels and soil carbon accumulations.  Because of the nutrient savings they were able to suspend fertilizer applications for five years following a drought and this had a significant economic impact.

Following this field visit we had made arrangements to visit with representatives from GDM.  GDM is a soybean seed/gentics company that has grown rapidly in South America and is beginning to develop markets in the US.  Rain early in the day made the field road impassible however, so we decided to change plans and meet at a local Pizza shop in Passa Fundo.  The GDM reps were guests of Shaun Heinbaugh, one of our tour participants, who had made contact with GDM representatives in the US prior to the trip.  The reps shared with us some of their breeding objectives and marketing plans for soybean seeds.  They market seeds under two brands, GDM and Donmario.  We learned that in Brazil, soybean genetics must have the same name regardless of who sells them.  In the US, companies can each have a different name on the same genetics.