Cattle counting and weighing at Villa Lucero

Cattle counting and weighing at Villa Lucero

8 March 2023

Cattle farming is vital to the Uruguayan economy and is the country's leading agricultural export. As of 2021, there were close to 12 million head of cattle in Uruguay (and still extensive land available), making it the highest livestock density per capita in the world, ahead of New Zealand, Argentina, and Brazil.

Counting and weighing a cattle herd is an essential task that farmers and ranchers regularly perform to track their livestock numbers accurately.

Our co-founder Joaquín Labella travelled this week to Villa Lucero, our 9,000-hectare property in the north of Uruguay, to oversee the rigorous counting and weighing by our local team of the property's cattle herd with the support of independent third-party auditors.

We are counting and weighing Villa Lucero's entire 4,000-strong herd to establish with certainty its size, composition (e.g., bulls, cows, calves), live weight, and dollar value. This information will assist us and our client, the owner of Villa Lucero, in making informed decisions regarding breeding, sales, and herd management, which is particularly important against a backdrop of severe drought and depressed cattle prices.

This cattle counting and weighing exercise will mobilise our entire team of eight for three days, employing various techniques ranging from manual counting to precision farming equipment such as electronic tags and scales.