January 24, 2019
We woke up at 3 a.m. today to get on the bus and drive 5 hours to Uberaba, Minas Geras. In Uberaba, we visited ABCZ which is the Zebu breed association headquarters and fairgrounds. There are 8 Zebu breeds of cattle used in Brazil. Zebu beef originated in India. ABCZ maintains the pedigree of all these breeds as well as holding many events to distribute knowledge and promote the breeds. The largest event is the annual ExpoZebu which attracts 500,000 people from over 38 countries to the ABCZ fairgrounds. At this event, numerous livestock exhibitions, auctions, and breed meetings take place.
Following our tour of the fairgrounds we listened to a presentation on the value of Zebu breeds to Brazil. Zebu breeds represent 80% of Brazilian cattle. After we left ABCZ we ate a quick lunch at a gas station on our way Alta Genetics.
At Alta we were shown a variety of their bulls and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each bull. The most familiar was the Brangus bull which is a Angus and Brahman cross. They also showed us the process of extracting the semen from a bull and how it is processed before it is ultimately shipped to the farmer.
From Alta Genetics we drove another 5 hours to Itumbiara, Goiás. During our drive we saw sugar cane, corn, soybeans, and Zebu cattle! We had dinner at a Brazilian restaurant along the river. We also took a walk to see the river and the area. We then returned to the hotel to catch up on some sleep.
Thank you ABCZ for the tour!
ABCZ!
We were able to see the different types of bulls.
Thank you to everyone at Alta for the tour!
-Todd Peterson