WHEN she was 17, Sally Thomson travelled from Western Australia to Brazil on a Rotary Exchange, 15 years later she returned and made the country her permanent home.
“Brazil is an exciting and intriguing place, full of the complexity and opportunity of a developing country in an energised culture with abundant landscapes,” she said.
“I started giving Nuffield Australia a hand in 2012 to organise their global focus program to Brazil, then met my partner, a New Zealander who came to Brazil in 2001 to start the dairy farm, which is where we live now.”
Ms Thomson lives on Leitissimo, a vertically integrated pasture-based dairy farm in the Cerrado biome, on the western side of the Bahia state of Brazil.
“The cows rotationally graze pasture irrigated by pivot and the milk is processed into Brazil’s premium UHT milk on the farm itself,” she said.
“It is then sold through supermarkets, and to food service throughout Brazil.
“It’s an innovative project being done at scale and exciting to be part of.”
Ms Thomson said Leitissimo is the only dairy farm in the region, the dryland farms producing soybean and maize with some cattle, while irrigated farms produce coffee, seed crops, beans and tobacco.
“Exports are a focus, but the large population of Brazil, about 200 million, means the domestic market is substantially larger than Australia,” she said.
Ms Thomson said farmers in Brazil faced some challenges common to Australia along with its own unique situation and opportunities.
We receive about 1000 mm of rain between about October and March, then experience a distinct dry season
- Sally Thomson
“Inter-generational planning, access to capital, appropriate technology, political influence, social enabling are common themes the world over,” she said.
“But Brazil has much stricter labour and environmental laws that can restrict the ability to operate.
“The big focus is to produce more with less, in terms of land use area and inputs.”
Ms Thomson said while she and her partner live in an isolated area by most standards, the farm itself is a small community with over 100 people employed.
“Some travel the one to two hours back to town each day or for weekends and others live full-time in the 35 houses and two dormitories on the farm itself,” she said.
“The farm also provides a school for the children of families, especially the milkers who need to be living on farm to milk twice a day.”
Life on the Savannah
Ms Thomson said environmental law in the region dictated at least 20 per cent remnant vegetation must be maintained under each property title.
“We have 80pc as well as backing onto a privately owned 30,000 hectare conservation block which adjoins the 450,000 hectare national park.
Ms Thomson said the environment in Brazil is distinctively different from Australia.
“We are 900 metres above sea level, and at 14 degrees of latitude, which results in warm days and balmy nights,” she said.
“We receive about 1000 mm of rain between about October and March, then experience a distinct dry season.”
Ms Thomson said ecologically, Brazil is classified into various biomes, the Pampas, Atlantic Rainforest, Pantanal, Cerrado, Caatinga and Amazon rainforest.
“We are in the Cerrado, or savannah, it is a beautiful fire-resistant landscape incredibly rich in flora and fauna, especially reptiles and birdlife.
“The washed latisoils are sandy and naturally low fertility, but uniform and deep soil structure.”
Ms Thomson said the state boundary was marked by a plateau that acted as the beginning of a 600 kilometre strip known as one of the key large scale cropping regions of Brazil.
Developed about 30 years ago, Ms Thomson said agribusiness continued to be the economic driver for employment, infrastructure and services.
“Local eco-tourism is new in the region, encouraging people to explore the waterfalls and caves on the plateau that divides the states.”
Expat life
Ms Thomson said she has learned a lot from her travel and exposure to multiple countries.
“Living and working in another country is a special space for personal growth and broadening ones horizons, testing ones values and growing ones comfort zone.”
“I’ve never been a good tourist traveller, I need to be in a place for more than a week to take my own filters off and start to feel the pulse.
“So get a good idea, move your head and move your heart.”
