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Querência, Mato Grosso
I am still learning Portuguese every day.
Sometimes I avoid certain questions. For example, when people ask where I am from
and I say from Sao Paulo, from Parana, they ask: "But before that",
because I still have an accent. I'm still learning every day.
My grandfather worked in a factory at Westinghouse.
My father was the first generation of farmers in my family.
He was very curious and he liked agriculture. He read a lot
and began farming in the United States.
Soon after, he moved to Brazil to be a farmer.
I came to Brazil in 1974
with enough money to buy a truck and a combine. I think it was 30,000 dollars.
I had some money accumulated and
bought my combine in Curitiba, a New Holland 1530.
It was in the Ponta Grossa region in Castrolanda. With the help of other Hollandaise farmers, I harvested crops for other farmers in the area.
We started to plant no till because
I had friends in the Hollandaise colony from Castrolanda
and Ponta Grossa doing so. It was one of the first places where they started planting no till.
It was Franke Dijkstra, among others in the city of Ourinhos,
that introduced us to contacts at the machinery company, Semeato.
They helped get us oriented for planting no till and I practiced.
I was one of the pioneers of no till planting.
Additionally, when we started to plant here in Rio Verde, no till was a novelty.
I bought some black oats from Franke Dijkstra,
who also planted in this area, to make a cover crop for the no till.
After that, the machinery slowly started to improve.
Some manufacturers in Brazil would go to the States with me to see the machinery there.
The biotechnology and genetics in the soybeans and in corn, along with the insecticides
like Herculex and YieldGard, were very good breakthroughs
because before them, the fall armyworms,
along with other insects, were very harmful and hurted our corn.
One thing that I would like to say is, that we are very attached to the Pioneer team.
They are very good.
Marlan Logan and Mariano -- it’s been a long time since I’ve seen them and
I hope to see them someday soon if I can.
We created a friendship, something similar to a family within Pioneer.
As a farmer and grower for life,
there is a certain urge to produce and to see things grow.
If we can be viable, we will produce more and more.
My dream is to leave one, organized farm to each of my sons.
That is what I am trying to do.
My father.... (emotional pause) My father helped me a lot here.
He helped... It was like he could see into the future.
He helped me buy the 12 thousand acres that I have here.
It was a very good decision.
I want to do the same for my sons if I can. Right?
DuPont Pioneer