Agricultural

Bales, concentrate, mineral salt and molasses for the dry months:

most of what gets listed under animal feed does one of two jobs. Hay bales and silage replace the grass a pasture stops growing in the dry season. Concentrate, sold in 100-pound sacks and formulated by species and stage, adds the protein and energy that grass alone does not give a milking cow or a growing pig. Molasses poured over dry forage adds energy to it. Read the species on the tag before the brand: a cattle ration is not horse feed, and some contain additives that are dangerous to horses.

Buying bales and feed before the grass runs out:

across the Arco Seco, and above all in Azuero, a hard dry season sends everyone after bales at the same moment, and the price of bales and molasses climbs with the demand. Buying before the rains stop costs less and gets the better lots. That makes storage part of the deal: a bale kept on pallets under a roof keeps, while one stacked on bare earth draws damp up from below.

Opening a bale or a feed sack before you load it:

pull a flake from the middle of the bale, not the outside. It should smell sweet and look green to straw-coloured. Grey or white dust, a musty smell or warmth deep inside mean it was baled wet or stored badly, and mouldy forage can make animals ill. Weigh a bale or two when the price is per bale: loose and tight bales hold different amounts of feed. With concentrate, check the manufacture or expiry date printed on the sack and open one: clumps and a sour smell mean damp. A sealed sack in date is worth its price; an opened one from a farm that has sold up is worth a good deal less, whatever it cost.

Livestock trailers, horse trailers and the pickup that pulls them:

a livestock trailer has open or slatted sides and a floor built to take manure; a horse trailer is closed, padded and divided into stalls so each animal travels braced. A bumper-pull trailer hitches to a ball at the back of the pickup and suits a few head. A gooseneck couples to a ball in the load bed, carries more and tracks steadier on the road, but only works with a pickup fitted for it. Keep the loaded trailer within what the truck is rated to tow, and look at the floor first: urine and manure rot wooden boards and rust steel cross-members from beneath, so get under it with a torch. Then the tyres, bearings, lights and ramp hinges. Tractors sit under tractors.

Cattle, goats and horses moving to a new farm:

the checks are the same for cows as for horses, or any other animal in livestock. Watch them walk on level ground, look for lameness, runny eyes or nose and a heavy tick load, and ask which vaccinations they have had. Cattle and horses carry the owner’s registered brand. Check that the mark on the hide matches the seller’s brand certificate, and ask for the papers that go with the animals before you send the trailer.

Listing feed, a trailer or animals from your farm:

for feed, give the type, the sack or bale weight, how many you have, the date on the sacks and how they were stored; a photo of one opened bale says more than a photo of the whole stack. For a trailer, give the length and width, the axles, the hitch type, the floor material, with a photo of the floor from underneath. For animals, give the number, sex, age, breed or cross and the district where they stand, show the brand in the photos and have the papers ready. Someone driving out from Las Tablas or Santiago with their own trailer will ask whether the corral has a loading ramp and whether the track in will take a loaded trailer after a downpour.