Today we visited the US embassy in Lisbon. Ambassador Robert Sherman was not there
because he was traveling, however we were able to visit with five members of
the US Foreign Service. They gave an
overview of what their day-to-day duties were at the embassy, and were very
transparent about discussing international trade specifically between the US
and the European Union.
Our second stop was to a dairy farm. The farm has 300 Holstein cows and 2,500
Alpine and Saanen goats. All of the feed
required for animal consumption is produced on the farm (growing conditions and
irrigation allow for corn to be double cropped after rye grass). We learned about how the European Union
recently removed quotas for milk production resulting in a decline in
prices. This farm is currently operating
at a loss on each liter of milk produced by the cows. Goat milk was still profitable. It was interesting to see how similar the
operation was to dairy farms in the United States (free stall barn, corn
silage, sand bedding, milking parlor, etc.)
Next we visited the Companhia das Lezirias where we ate
lunch. Afterwards, we began a tour of
the farm which is 18,000 (about 45,000 acres) hectares and owned by the Portuguese
government. The farm has cork
productions, rice, wine, cattle, eucalyptus, horses, and hunting. Our tour concluded with a visit to their
vineyard and winery. Companhia das
Leziras focuses heavily on being environmentally friendly by minimizing inputs
spread on their crops, and their cattle operation is primarily organic.
