The pawned word of the farmers is usually the law in the countryside, is that why they take so much care of it, saving themselves from possible violations or stumbling blocks? On the other hand, could it be that some bet whims trying to find a reality that fits their commitments and not vice versa? How far will what has been agreed become meat and milk, or will it remain in the stretch that goes from saying to fact?
None of those questions can be answered in February. Moreover, most likely, not in March either. Although the current figures are already questioning the aspirations, the time is still short to judge the objectivity of the contracts that, translated into plans, must put liters of milk and kilograms of meat on the table.
Even though in the middle of this month the contracts for 2023 indicated that milk almost reached 100 percent of what was demanded, estimated at 15 million 721,900 liters (L) and the nearly 2,500 tons (t) of meat in the basic basket and social consumption, remained at 64 percent (barely 1600) what was included in the papers up to that moment did not ensure its "strict compliance."
That same week, during a meeting that analyzed these indicators, it was stated: the province was below what was agreed in 8000 L of milk and 11 t of beef. Then, several questions were imposed on the stage. “How is it possible, for example, that in a week several municipalities have advanced in their contracting, that those responsible have visited the places, and what was already insured before has not been provided? Why do we contract if, in the end, the milk does not arrive? If now that we are fully involved in this matter, it is not fulfilled, what will happen when the contracting rounds are finished?
With such questions, the member of the Central Committee of the Party and its first secretary in the territory, Liván Izquierdo Alonso, questioned the local authorities. In addition, he even said it from the certainty of someone who had just demonstrated it 24 hours before, visiting 12 farms or units.
“We saw farmers with four cows who did not provide even a liter of milk, others who only gave two, and there were even those who said that the milk they had was to feed the calves of their cows. And what about the children?” demanded the first secretary.
It is because of stories like these that he questioned that what was contracted obeyed real potentialities and not comfortable plans, because "although in January the province complied and almost none did, we must say that it was a small plan and that the comparison must be between ourselves, with what we can still pay taxes”.
On paper, these figures are not linear, because obviously the conditions of January —where the plans indicated about 25,000 L per day, 2,000 less than in January 2022—, are not similar to those of rainy May; but in practice the reserves are manifest, for example, in the private sale of cheeses, creams or liters of milk that do not go to Dairy Industry, in addition to the fact that the marketing policy made it clear that overfulfillments do not have to be marketed there.
The extremes have reached a point that, during tours in December, Invasor reflected the position of ranchers who proposed "with total naturalness, pay the industry 10.00 pesos for each liter not delivered —as compensation for non-compliance— in order to be able to dispose of the production. Osvaldo Morales Batista, the director of Dairy Industry, told it, stupefied, who echoed the simple account that the producers made: they give the industry 10.00 pesos and they can sell a liter on the street for 100.00. Round stimulus for defaulters.
Perhaps for this reason, almost at the end of the last month of the year, only 33 percent of the milk of 2023 had been able to be contracted. There were some 8 million liters to be found, admitted Leonardo Pérez Rodríguez, sub-delegate for Livestock in the Provincial Delegation of the Agriculture.
January revealed a better scenario, despite maintaining the contractual debt at almost four million liters and the fact that around 400 farmers did not honor their current agreements, putting medical allowances in check; which is why it was spoken in terms of “priority among priorities”.
It would not be until the middle of February that the livestock authorities were able to speak of 99 percent of what was contracted for milk, while the irregularities brought to light in the pastures once again demonstrated that it is there —and not behind the bureau— where the accounts.
A team led by the Communist Party of Cuba and the Government of the main municipality would achieve, on paper, half a million liters by 2023, in just one week retracing the field. The result would be revealing: more than 200 producers that at that time of the year had not yet established a contract with Dairy.
In parallel, other groups toured each municipality and the uprising exposed cattle that do not appear in the pastures or in the numbers of theft or deaths. The mismatch pointed to peasants from Majagua who could have moved their cattle to the neighboring province or were collecting their milk there. The causes were being investigated, while the sub-delegate for Livestock visited Limones Palmero this Wednesday, questioning what was reported from the base.
The head of Livestock Genetics and Control in the province, Rubiseyda Martínez Aguilar, clarified it: “The national count is carried out by the productive bases, in conjunction with the company. We are an office, we do not reside in the paddock and we certify those numbers. That is why it is their responsibility, in the first place”.
However, the information —even the reliable one— would then have to be translated into concrete facts, which was not the case, at least, in all the municipalities checked. From the 1st As of February 8, Chambas was left owing 1,100 liters of milk; Moron, 400; Bolivian, 600; Baragua, 5,000; Venezuela, 2000…
The fulfillment of the plan in the delivery of meat behaved, once again, below expectations, with excess weight in the delay for Ruta Invasora and the Comprehensive Agricultural Company Ciego de Ávila.
However, they were not news. The debts of the Meat Industry in this province have a long history.
Beyond repeated imbalances in the weights and the decrease in the mass, given by low birth rates and increased theft and slaughter, the animals also arrive very skinny at the slaughterhouse, decreeing an invariable logic: more cattle are needed to obtain the agreed weight.It is a herd calculation that includes bullocks, fattening bulls, stallions, oxen, heifers and cows.
According to Leonardo Pérez, percentages and kilograms are established that the farmer must comply with, even though their contribution is not mandatory in each category. “From the ox and the stallion, 10 percent is extracted, with 450 kilograms (kg); to the heifer, the same as to the bullock, 7 percent is applied, with 270 kg; the cow, which last year extracted 11 percent, is now 8, with 345 kg.
The idea, says the sub-delegate, is to have a notion in front of the herd of the farmer and evaluate each case, because "it may be that their cows are not old or yield in milking, and those kilograms decide to deliver them in oxen, let's say".
Completing the nearly 2,500 tons of the basic food basket and social consumption depend, to a large extent, on the fact that each kilogram is not diverted, not even to other authorized destinations, hence "an agreement of the Ministry of the Food Industry established to paralyze the production to other destinations until it is concluded, first, with the main destination”, pointed out Yaisel Vega, delegate of Agriculture in the territory.
So Turiguanó will have to allocate 2,185 t for Tourism, and Ruta Invasora will contribute another 920; without this, the managers agreed, affecting the share of the population.
Most of the criteria agree that, both in milk and meat, there are reserves in the paddocks for 2023. Nevertheless, for now, the contracts are only theory that the days will deny... or confirm.