It can be said that from the side of his father and mother, Gonzalo Albizu was born in the countryside. However, when he was less than three years old and his father died, life took him to the city and country experiences were left for the weekend or all the time. But that seed stood firm in his soul, was down well and, slowly, firmly took root too. Almost 40 years later, after being a CREA consultant for 10 years, he decided it was time to try new directions and, together with his wife and two young children, he set out to move to Illinois and shape a land for them all. preparing. thought: Spread of no tillage system and use of service crops In North American production plans.
“My father (Juan Albizu) grew up in the countryside with his brothers, going to agricultural school, a man on horseback all his life, a good pastoralist, while on my mother’s (Suzana Tamagnon) side, my grandfather was an Italian immigrant, first a trader who later developed agricultural production”, Albizu reviewed. “Although that whole stage was in the city as a child, I always liked the countryside and the horses,” he admitted. The town that grew up, General Pico, is in La Pampa.
Thus, as a boy, like any child who gets the opportunity to roam the countryside, Albizu’s childhood was a world of sensations. “My first memories were with my father and horses, playing with my cousins as well, but when I was two years old my father passed away and we settled in the city, though always with the countryside,” says Albizu. Said, who acknowledges that “all those country customs are inherited that began to emerge in adolescence and” He inspired her to enter an agronomy career”.
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Why Agricultural Science?
Because of all that inheritance and the need to take responsibility for the family farm, agronomy emerged. “I wanted to show that I had the ability to do it and I always believed that the path was agricultural science and not veterinary or agricultural economics,” he shared.
Regarding the start of a career (something that might be useful to future agronomists), he recalled that he “entered with many anxieties and apprehensions because of the idea that to be an agronomist he had to ride a tractor. do, harvest, be at work, etc… but no, agricultural science is much more than that, there are many things that I discovered during the course”.
He entered the degree in 2003 and finished in 2007. After that, it took him a year to complete his thissis. Too, Master’s Degree in Direct Sowing and ventured into everything that is concerned soil health, a subject that continues to be his driving force and passion even today. “It was important to do the thissis before starting work, this is a moment when you have to hold the horse because you want to go to work immediately, but I kept calm, I did and then I went to work,” he said .
FIRST WORK AND CREA IN YOUR LIFE
His first job was for a seed pool. “I had a big dry season 2008/09, it was very difficult to get a job, and I got into it, I learned a lot, you have to do everything, it polishes you, you tan seriously,” they said. There he was 4 years old. “But it was very demanding, there came a time when I felt I wanted to manage my time, grow, learn about other things, and then in 2012 the prospect of applying to a CREA group born,” he explained.
Since his third year of college, when a colleague mentioned the existence of CREA groups and the dynamics of their work, he, being a CREA consultant, was in between eyebrows. Thus came the opportunity to enter Atreucó Group. technical consultant inIn the sandy west, where he spent 6 years.
“In the beginning it cost me a lot because I came from agriculture and I got completely into the meat and milk producers, I learned everything, plus doing a very defensive farming in which you make full use of agricultural knowledge are”, recalled Albizu, who remembers it as “A wonderful experience.”
What was challenging for Albizu was learning not only about technical livestock issues he didn’t know until then, but “different people, different company profiles, some more organized with information, others more creative.” “Small, Big, But All In”. Trying to achieve the same planning objectives and long-term vision, it was a great training.”
“I began to look at it as a whole, an integral unit, because sometimes as agronomists we just look at the field, we want more production, but the reality tells you that it’s also important. Management, planning, decision making in different scenarios… it’s challenging, it was crazy, but I learned a lot,” Albizu admitted.
After six years at the Atreucó Group, he decided to seek new horizons. “I wanted to rediscover myself with agriculture and that’s why I applied to the Queme-Catrilo Group, also in the sandy west, but in another context. There, in addition to meeting another dozen agricultural companies, with different profiles, what I started seeing a lot is the use of service crops because La Pampa is in the area areas with excess water and with other wind erosionAlbizu said.
The point is that many farms have moved from pastures, which consume 1,000 mm of water per year, to crops that require 400–600 mm. “In an area that gets 800 mm of rain per year, you have plenty of water when you grow grain, so The challenge is to manage shortfalls in some systems, but to exceed them in others.Service crops allow us to have good water management”, said Albizu.
family area
But in the meantime the challenge of the family field was always present. Which was handled by his father and then rented out in the 90s. “We lived off the lease when we were kids, but at the time it was enough to live on, period, later the business grew, but there were tough times,” Albizu recalled.
Thus, over time, he distributed administrative and productive tasks together with his brother (a year younger than him) and in 2022 they joined as members of a CREA Pico-Cume group from the Oeste Arenoso region.
What he likes the most is “doing agronomy”. Discover an exciting world with service crops Thinking about the development of soil health. “This is the technology that I liked the most and now I am applying it in the family sector, with the management of the company in Argentina is very entertaining … so to speak … this one for any administrator Good practice is to stay in business, evaluate all risks and setbacks and make the best use of it”, Albizu said.
Personally, when asked about the taste, Albizu remarked that “another thing that he likes about his job is being able to go with the family sometimes, the four of us take care of our kids.” For monitoring, some take trips to collect samples for sowing or harvest. They play while we work.”
What is the position of management within an agricultural company?
Sometimes you make a big difference in administration. That’s why most manufacturers are turning to the desk and delegating the batch. If you see what most companies do today you will realize. When they run out of time and have to hand it over, they bring in someone to take care of the technical stuff. There you realize the importance of administration, Financial results have a huge impactOf course, if you don’t produce well on the lot then there is no viable company, that’s the starting point, but later on, management is in a relevant place.
Today you have a lot of good technicians who can take care of the field and you, as an administrator, have to take care of buying and selling well, which is very, very hard, which is financial flow in a nutshell. , medium and long term, because there you can make the difference… for better, or for worse.
for the north
With just 38 years old (on September 15) Gonzalo Albizu and his family’s little table (read, his wife Wanda Silvia, an agronomist), consider it’s time to try an experience outside Argentina.
“Slowly I started thinking about what I would like for my life and on the one hand I found that in the family business we were growing on what we had proposed, and I reached 10 years as a CREA consultant. Was gone, I wanted to set myself new challenges”, Albizu shared.
“With our family we’ve always wanted the challenge of experiencing the outdoors, so The possibility of launching a project in the US arose., in an American company with partners from Argentina, I went to see what they were doing there and I liked it, I offered to join the project as a technical manager, we talked about it at home started talking and we felt like this was the moment”, said the engineer, who already in March 2023 with his wife and their two young children, Olivia (3 years old) and Justo (1) in the North American corn Planning to settle in the middle of the belt.
paradigm shift
“It’s in Illinois, initially on leased land, to Farming is changing the American productive paradigm By exploring all possibilities of direct sowing, doing more agronomy in lots, testing with service crops,” Albizu said. And he continued: “There’s a lot of production out there, but with a lot of things improving, most of all, what I saw, in soybeans, with a lot of focus. stability and carbon separation,
“The service crop, of course, will not be the same as that of Argentina, but Will favor water economy, carbon sequestration and weed managementI believe that the dynamism we have put into Argentina’s productive system has a lot to do with contributing to the American system, in turn, it allows me to seek knowledge and technologies applicable to the most suitable and productive soils in the world. inspirations to”, said Albizu.
It is a “give and take”. The idea is not to just dump Argentina’s knowledge, but to adapt it, understand the problems there and adapt some of the tools that are giving great results in Argentina. And learn too.
“We are leaving, but it has nothing to do with the economic condition of the country, which apparently I am not unaware of, but rather the project that really inspired us, it has nothing to do with it. Face professional and personal challengeslearn the language, connect with other mindsets, we always talk about it with my wife, having a life experience abroad opens your mind, we would like our kids to be citizens of the world though ignoring their history without doing, to always come back with the idea”, Albizu summarized.