NOT A MANSION, nor even a Kentucky horse stable, the structure at left is the world's largest shearing shed. Located at Maria Behety Ranch, on the island of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, the building has been in use since the 1930s and can handle 5000 sheep per day. Maria Behety is managed by Patricio Saurez, far right, and his assistant, Paul Chevallier Boutell.

Sheep Have Been The Foundation
At Maria Behety For A Century

By Colleen Schreiber

RIO GRANDE, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina — Maria Behety is one of the largest and most reputable sheep farms in the Southern hemisphere. Jose Menendez, a native of Spain, established Maria Behety in 1897 when he brought sheep from the Falklands. Originally it was known simply as "No. 2" because it was actually the second farm established by Menendez, and the animals were branded as such.

In total, Menendez originally controlled some 475,000 acres. During this time the Menendez family ran some 150,000 sheep and employed 100 to 150 men. Fifteen people were hired just to maintain the gardens. Now the sheep cut the grass.

When shearing time came in the early days, some animals had to be trailed 60 to 70 kilometers (38-44 miles) to get to the shearing shed.

Today that shearing shed itself is a source of renown for Maria Behety, which also boasts trout fishing equaled only in Scotland and Alaska.

Built in the 1930s, the Australian-style shearing shed has 40 drops, giving it a capacity of 5000 head a day. It is the largest in the world; Australia once had a larger facility, but it burned down some 20 years ago.

In 1954, the Menendez farms were divided between different relatives and some sold out. Today Maria Behety runs some 40,000 sheep and 700 to 1000 head of cattle on 62,000 hectares (approximately 154,000 acres). The farm is still recovering from tremendous winter storm losses suffered in 1995. They lost 15,000 head of sheep alone from this one storm.

Patricio Suarez, the manager, along with Paul Chevallier Boutell, assistant manager, and 28 other full-time employees manage the operation for the Menendez family.

Romney sheep, which originated in Europe, were the first breed brought to the island, but those have long since been replaced by Corriedales, the primary breed on Tierra del Fuego. A few Merinos can be found in the north, but not many.

Maria Behety is located in the northern part of the island. Ferdinand Magellan named Tierra del Fuego "Land of the Fires" or "Fireland" when he entered the strait and saw columns of smoke arising from the ocean to the south. The smoke was actually from fires built in the canoes of the Yahgan and Alcaluf Indians to keep warm.

The island covers 25,754 square miles, slightly smaller than Ireland. Of that total, only 8395 square miles belong to Argentina. The remainder lies in Chile. The Andes Mountains, some 30 kilometers from Maria Behety, can be seen and admired in the distance. The mountain chain, which disappears into the sea, runs north to south and separates Argentina from Chile.

The island was first conquered by the British, and an Anglican priest came to work with the Indians living there. The first permanent settlement on Tierra del Fuego was established in 1871.

In 1914 there were 2504 human inhabitants, 784,183 sheep, 6346 cattle and 5673 horses. Today some 70,000 to 75,000 people live on the island. The people prefer to be called Fuegians and not Patagonians, because Patagonia ends at the Straits of Magellan.

The climate is semiarid to subhumid with oceanic characteristics. Cold weather and strong winds are common.

The island is privileged, some say, in terms of precipitation when compared to the rest of Patagonia. Still, annual rainfall averages only 350 to 400 mm (14-16 inches). Rains normally come in the autumn from March to July.

Maria Behety and the surrounding area have suffered through drouth for the better part of a year now. What little moisture they've received was quickly lost to the typically strong winds, a situation many West Texas stockmen could appreciate. Livestock normally drink from natural springs, but many of those have dried up in recent months.

There isn’t a true summer on the island of Tierra del Fuego, but December and January are considered their best months in terms of warm weather. Because the island lies so near the South Pole, days are extremely long during December. It's still light enough to see fairly well at midnight, and then by half-past two it's light again. During the winter, the sun doesn't come up until 9:30 a.m. and then goes down by four or five p.m.

Before sheep were introduced, guanacos (similar to the Alpaca) and the Indians were the only inhabitants on Tierra del Fuego. Today there are far fewer sheep and fewer farms, 60 in total, on the island. The larger and more important farms, like Maria Behety, are located in the north. Here there are five or six large sheep operations which run in excess of 40,000 head of sheep. Intermediate-sized farms have 20,000 sheep or fewer, and the smallest of the viable sheep operations run 6000 to 10,000 head.

"Camps" or pastures on Maria Behety are large, encompassing from 1000 to 5000 hectares (2500 to 12,350 acres). The sheep mostly utilize the short grasses common to the area, including the Festucas Poas, Stipas, etc.

The best camps are in the valleys where the grass and seeps are protected from the almost constant wind. Maria Behety stocks at an average of one sheep to one hectare (2.47 acres). Elsewhere in Patagonia, stocking rates vary from one to five to one to 20 animals per hectare.

There are no natural predators on the island, though some operations have problems from time to time with wild town dogs. A gray fox is native, but they're small and do not harm the livestock. In Patagonia a larger red fox causes some damage, along with the puma.

Sheep are herded, but the shepherds don't live with the sheep per se. Instead, they live at eight camps scattered throughout the ranch. Some live with their families in these camps; others live alone.

Many of their shepherds come from the Province of Corrientes, others from the southern part of Patagonia. One herder is responsible for 2000 to 5000 ewes, depending upon circumstances. They raise their own dogs, usually Border Collie crosses, which they use constantly in their work.

The pedigreed sheep, the "cabana" or breeding flock, are kept in large, well-maintained barns during the winter but are allowed to graze outside during the summer months. Even then, however, the bucks are still brought back in at night.

Maria Behety has a reputation as one of the best sheep breeders in all of Argentina. One man is in charge of the top animals, some 300 ewes and 15 or so bucks. Livestock shows begin in February, and the first that Maria Behety attends is on Tierra del Fuego. The main show, Palermo, is held in July in Buenos Aires. The second show in order of importance is in Corrientes. Sometimes they also take animals to shows in Chile and Uruguay.

Maria Behety uses artificial insemination on about 6000 ewes. Lambs from the registered animals are born in September and October, the lambing percentage in this instance averaging 90 to 95 percent with some twinning.

Bucks go out with the rest of the herd in May. Maria Behety runs 30 bucks to every 1000 ewes. Lambing in the commercial herd begins about a month later and finishes up in November. Lambing percentage usually averages 80 percent.

Lambs are weaned at the January shearing, normally weighing 12 to 14 kilograms (27-31 pounds). This year, because it was such a poor growing season, lambs aren't expected to wean at much over eight kilos or 18 pounds.

The big shearing begins the first part of January and takes about three weeks. There is constant movement of the animals once they're brought to the shearing shed. They keep about 500 moving through the barn at all times, and in that way manage to shear on average 2000 head a day using 16 or 20 of the shearing drops available. If it's a rainy day, all 2000 would be kept under the shed.

Shearers come from Corrientes and Uruguay. Fleeces are sorted and classed and baled in the new clear pack bales that the industry has recommended.

Their Corriedale sheep shear on average five kilograms or 11 pounds per animal of 27 to 29 micron wool. All the wool on the island is exported. Most of it goes to Europe, though some goes to Uruguay and a small amount on occasion goes to the continent to the Province of Corrientes. Wool is exported by trucks or from Ushuaia out of the port.

Competition in terms of the number of wool buyers is not much better here than it is in the U.S. Generally, Maria Behety has only two buyers at any one time bidding on its wool. Like elsewhere in the world, the wool market is disastrous. Currently, wool here is selling for $1 a kilo.

As an experiment of sorts, Maria Behety traded some sheep for 30 head of a llama/alpaca cross. They're raised for their extremely fine wool, 16 microns on average. The animals are shorn once a year, but each animal only yields about two kilograms or 4.4 pounds per shearing. The wool is used in a niche market and is sold direct to the end user.

As elsewhere, labor and management are the biggest expenses at Maria Behety. The cost to produce a kilo of wool runs 97 cents to $1, while cost to raise a lambs runs about $7 a head. Earnings per animal would average about $6 for wool and $4 for the meat, leaving about a $2 to $3 margin per animal.

Wool has long been the primary income provider, but the drastic drop in wool prices forced Maria Behety to look at alternative income sources. For that reason the ranch built their own lamb slaughtering facilities about five years ago. The plant is inspected and approved for selling meat direct to supermarkets. Previously, lambs were slaughtered in Rio Grande at the farmer-owned cooperative packing plant. That plant has since sold but is still in operation.

In addition to their own lambs, Maria Behety also slaughters lambs from area farms. Farmers pay a $1 a head processing fee. Last year some 35,000 to 40,000 lambs went through their packing plant. Of that total about 25 percent belonged to Maria Behety.

The plant generally stays busy six months out of the year, from September through May, and slaughters on average 160 to 170 head a day, or 200 to 300 head during the peak season. Lambs for the most part are slaughtered as milk fats at two to three months of age, weighing on average 40 to 50 pounds. An average lamb carcass, Boutell says, weighs 12 to 15 kilos (26-33 pounds), but there's also a category in which carcasses weigh as little as six to eight kilos.

Maria Behety also slaughters some yearlings and some old ewes, and all meat goes to the local supermarkets. Suarez supervises and coordinates the kill. During the peak season, as is typical anywhere, farmers rush to get their lambs slaughtered first because the market is higher at the first of the season.

Maria Behety employs four butchers who basically run the show and do everything in the packing plant as well as all the trucking, both of the live lambs from the ranches, and the carcasses to the supermarket in Rio Grande. Butchers are paid 20 cents for every lamb killed.

Lambs are sold as whole carcasses to the two or three local supermarkets, and the butchers in the stores cut the carcasses per request of individual customers. At this time of the year, lamb is sold fresh, but Maria Behety also has their own freezer where carcasses can be stored when needed.

Suarez haggles with the two main supermarkets in Rio Grande to set the price for the lamb carcasses. In the end, the lamb sells for what the consumer is willing to pay.

Maria Behety has considered exporting to the continent.

"Eating lambs to the north isn’t the same as eating those raised on the island," Boutell insists. "We have better tasting lamb. Everyone will tell you that. Ours aren't as fat, so the taste isn't as heavy."

He claims lambs raised in the western part of Argentina are similar to those raised on the island.

To sell outside the island, Boutell notes, requires intensive marketing and the ability to compete on a worldwide basis; he says Maria Behety isn't yet ready to do that.

"That would be very difficult for us because we don't know enough about marketing. We have very good products, but we don’t know how to market those good products to the outside world. The Argentines are starting to change that and we have to work seriously towards that end," he concludes.

The smaller butcher shops, Boutell says, are beginning to disappear, not so much on the island but elsewhere in Argentina. The small markets can generally sell 15 to 20 lambs a week while the larger markets might sell 100 to 200 a week.

Though the main economic unit at Maria Behety by far is their sheep, they also run about 1000 head of Hereford cattle. Some camps run a Hereford-Charolais cross, but for the most part the calves are too big, Boutell says, and not well suited to areas where grass is a precious commodity. The Shorthorn was also used at one time at Maria Behety, as was the long-haired Highlander breed from Scotland.

Calving begins in November and calves are weaned in May weighing 180 to 200 kilos or 396 to 440 pounds. They're fattened on grass and slaughtered weighing 350 to 400 kilos or 770 to 880 pounds at a packing house in Rio Grande. Almost all of the beef is consumed on the island. Before hoof and mouth disease was controlled in Argentina, cattle prices in Tierra del Fuego were somewhat higher because the island was already free of the disease. Now they're more comparable to those on the continent.

Like elsewhere in the world, times are tough for sheep producers, but Suarez and Boutell plan to stay the course. Reputation, they believe, is worth something, and in the end the reputation that has long been established at Maria Behety will allow them to survive on into the future.