-> shadley
>>I have a lot of trouble getting accurate info there <<
The dominican way: We do it this way because we always did it this way.
Buying land is definitely not a good way. The interest will be much more than what you pay to rent it, so much better is to rent one. You are flexible, if you have different fincas you can change animals from one to another depending on the food available. However, all this depends if you can find a good relation between number of animals and size and number of fincas.
Again, I am not a professional farmer (if I continue like this I soon might be ;-))I am still experimenting. During my last visit to the DR I bought the above mentioned 20 bulls, but could not find a suitable finca, so now I feed them. This makes it really expensive, but if the animals gain only 50% of what they eat it still should be very profitable. This is an experiment until August this year, I will check the weight in May and then we'll see.
Developing a market for high quality beef will be something impossible for somebody like us. This would need really big money.
Imports are really a problem. The government wastes hard currency and ruins the local market.
-> Drake
I have been to the Feria as well, but as I don't really breed cattle, I can not say if it is worth paying that price. However, my general impression is that in the DR too many people don't care about quality, so this might be an advantage if you do.
I feed with gluten de maiz, vacalechera 18 and add some pasta de arroz (?), no need for melassa. Vaccines only desparasitante and vitamins.
What kind of coral are you talking about? Do you want something like a shed with roof etc. or only a place to feed them? We used palm-trees to build a trough, which is cheap and works fine.
When we have to give injections we take the bulls to the local weight station, which is right across the street, there we can fix them.
Bye
Tibu