Campos - Department of Caucete, province of San Juan, Argentina

Department of Caucete, province of San Juan
LOCATION	In the South East of the San Juan Province, at about 40 km (25 miles) from the Caucete Department and at about approximately 60 km (37 miles) from the capital city of the province. On National Route Nº 141 that links the city of San Juan with the provinces of La Rioja and Cordoba. The estate has a front of approximately 50 km (31 miles) on this road. The road is a bioceanic corridor (project under construction) which connects Buenos Aires, Cordoba, San Juan and, through the Agua Negra pass with La Serena (Chile).
SIZE	100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) approximately. It is a plot of rectangular and rather regular shape
DESCRIPTION	NATURAL RESOURCES: In this estate, two sectors can be clearly differentiated. One is composed by the range zone, which is the eastern hillside of the “Pie de Palo” range, with an important shrubby stratum composed by chanar (Geoffroea decorticans), Piquillin (Condalia microphylla) and carob tress (Prosopis spp.) and classic grasses of the hillside zone, which is about 40% of the estate. In the other sector, towards the east of this one, there is a low zone, with the natural grasses of the semiarid area where the field is located. This lower zone is an interesting natural grassland because, besides of the rain falling directly on it, it receives the rain falling on the hills that reaches this lower area trough ravines coming from the hills. The range is typical of the San Juan Province. It has a zone with straw, flechilla (Arisitida mendocina), arizona cotton top (Digitaria californica) and pasto de hoja (Trichloris crinita) as main pastures, and an arbustive stratum composed by jarilla (Larrea divaricata), zampa (Atriplex lampa), Piquillin (Condalia microphylla), chanar (Geoffroea decorticans), locust (Prosopis alba), and broom (Cytisus scoparius) FAUNA: This field is rich in autochthonous wild fauna, with Patagonian hare or mara (dolichotis patagonum) and american ostrich or Nandu (Rhea americana). CLIMATE: The field is in the argentinean semi-arid area and receives rain according to the location. The pluviometric regime for the area has an annual mean of about 150 to 200 mm. 90% of the rainfall is in summer. (6 to 8 inches) SOIL: Because of its size, a diversity of soils can be found. Outstanding are two well differentiated zones and, therefore, the soils are defined by the different levels In the range zone the soil is rocky, with several minerals. In the lower zones of the field the soil is loamy sand enriched by natural pastures typical of the Province of San Juan, which make possible the development of a cattle raising plan. WATER: In this field we find natural watering places in the range zone. The water can be driven through pipes to the lower areas to build watering places for the cattle. At present, Obras Sanitarias of the Province has built a pipe to supply water to the Bermejo town. Besides, in different places of the field, there are reservoirs to collect rain water with the same goal. More dams can be built according to needs. Also deep wells can be drilled for water extraction. Water is at about 250 m deep. ELECTRICITY: A work of the Provincial Government is under construction to carry electricity to the Bermejo town. This work is along the National Route nº 141, which is the eastern limit of the field, with a 50 km front.
APTITUDE	Cattle ranch for 3000 breeding cows.