What Uru-beeves eat Traditionally, Uruguayan beef animals spent most of their lives north of the Rio Negro grazing grass on the range and were moved south of the Rio Negro for finishing on the richer grass found nearer the Rio Plata and the sea. Most dairy production tended to be south of the Rio Negro and fed on grass and silage with the addition of ensiled sorghum.The recent very high prices for soya and winter wheat has encouraged southern farmers to grow more soya and wheat with less in the way of pastures resulting in fewer dairy cows and fewer grass-fed beef finishers. Having said that, most Uru beef is still grass fed and grass finished. The recent falls in the prices of winter wheat encouraged the replanting of more pastures last autumn further encouraged by the high beef price so I suspect that we may be seeing the beginning of a swing back to more grass. Here in east Colonia I can only think of 3 small beef producers who have adopted US style feed lots as feeding grass and silage is still more cost effective than feeding grain. Much of our best beef goes for export but we still have more Herefords than you'll find in Herefordshire and more Anguses than exist in Scotland so its not too difficult to track down 5 star beef at good butchers :-) | 
