Blog

 An Estancia in Argentina

Jan 02, 2024 Trips

An estancia is a private farm or ranch used to farm or raise livestock, and you’ll find many dotted across the Patagonia region. On a recent trip, I made it a goal to get out of the main town and visit one. Luckily, many are open in various forms to tourists now and I was able to find a local guide to take me.

On this particular estancia several generations of the family reside, as well as a few additional employees at times. It is a rather lean operation, staffing up at key times, such as sheep shearing in the spring (the southern spring, our fall). I met the father and his son who welcomed me in their home with coffee and homemade bread, both cooked in their wood-fired oven. They have lived and worked this estancia their entire lives with the father’s dad having started it nearly 100 years ago. It’s unclear if it will continue solely in family hands, however, as the next generation was off living in Buenos Aires and attending school, “studying computers.” Dad seemed disappointed he wasn’t studying agriculture, however – “You should learn how to grow your own food so you never go hungry,” he remarked.

After coffee, they took me on a tour of the farm. Their sheep herds have been devastated by wild dogs in recent years. They’ve been trying everything to protect them, most recently by training their own dogs to watch over them, which seems to be working. Next, I was taken into the nearly 100-year-old barn where they recently sheared the sheep for the season. The equipment is nearly 90 years old and still in use.

It was a partially sunny yet cool and windy day there, just as I had pictured the windswept land of Patagonia. I could get the sense, even on a relatively nice day like this, how the harsh climate and ever-shifting weather really shape life here. Or as the son described it, “you can tell the weather is single because it does what it wants.”

All photos from November 2023.

A stop at Lago Fagnano on the way there, where we enjoyed a little mate (a classic South American herbal drink) and the view.
The many homes on the estancia.
This little box used to sit on the edge of their property along the road. It is how neighbors would communicate with each other before other technology became accessible in the area. It was easier, I suppose than driving down some very long driveways, especially if you didn’t even know if they were home. You would leave notes, supplies, etc. in these boxes. Today, they had moved this box into a corral for supplies.
The main barn, used for shearing. It is built on stilts which helps it survive earthquakes.
One of the sheep dogs trained to protect the herd. While friendly to us, they asked that we not pet them as they want the sheep to be their family, not humans, so they are more inclined to protect their herd.
The mechanical shearing equipment. The long poles resting on the window ledge have clippers that attach to the end. No electricity, just spinning wheels and shafts driven from a motor below (next image). The sheep are brought into the corrals behind this wall, brought out one by one to the person shearing, and then sent on their way into the next corral out of sight to the left. A good shearer can sheer 100 sheep a day (“it’s a young man’s job” I was told by the son who no longer shears sheep himself).
The original motor that runs the sheering equipment. It was put in the 1930s and still works today. That belt comes up from the motor on a lower level and drives the shaft connecting the wheels in the previous photo, which in turn operates the clippers.
Wool sorted by grade.
Bales of wool that are being held back from sale until the market improves.
It was a long day (approximately 8 hours), but the long drives were worth it for views like these of that Andes Mountains.

Sign up for my newsletter and never miss a post. Learn more and sign up here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *