There are many crops grown in this region, but those grown by Global Ag Investments - Brazil are soybeans, cotton, corn, popcorn and feijao, an edible bean.

Brazil agriculture near Luis Eduardo Magalhaes has a regular planting season starting around October and finishing into early December on average: this is the start of the rainy season in the Bahia region. Preparation for planting work can start as soon as the crops are out from the previous season. The harvest season begins in March for corn and soybeans and some other crops and continues into June and July for cotton harvest. There are two seasons in Bahia, wet (planting) and dry (at harvest). Some crops are grown with pivots and cycle year round. Other crops work well for double crops on acres during the dry season and thrive.

Check out what we have going on as the year progresses below.

CROP PROGRESS: The soybeans on Sto Cristo's farm in late December. Sto Cristo is an addition to the farms this season.

LAST OF THE PLANTING: The rain has been very consistent this month. The last of the planting of cotton and soybeans are completed before the end of the month.

CROP PROGRESS: The corn on Rondonia's farm in late December.

CHRISTMAS PARTY: The staff at the Global Ag Christmas party.

NEW PLANTER: The new 108 foot John Deere planter begins its use for cotton.

CROP PROGRESS: This is corn planted on the north farm, Rondonia, early in the season.

CROP PROGRESS: First planted corn just coming up and becoming visible.

COTTON GIN OFFICE PROGRESS: Continued construction nears the end on the new office at the Cotton Gin site.

ANOTHER SUNSET AND MORE WILD LIFE SIGHTINGS FROM THE FARMS: The sunsets continue to look beautiful even when working through the planting season. The Interns have seen some more local wildlife in the area. The following are wild parrots, a close up of a beetle and a beehive found on the farm.

PLANTING PROGRESS: First start to planting. The rains came in early November allowing planting to start.

The roller preps the field before the new planter starts. The roller is a new equipment addition to Global Ag this year. It will be used for prep work before corn, soybeans, popcorn and feijao, and edible bean. This will increase harvest yields.

Global Ag existing planter starting up in the field. This planter has been worked on by the interns this year (see photos below in October) to turn it into 18 inch rows instead of 36 inch, increasing the row count to 45. This will be used to plant corn and soybeans.

After the popcorn is planted, the sprayer makes a pass over it with a pre-emergence herbicide.

Some of the seed needed to be treated manually before being planted.

NEW PLANTER ARRIVES: Global Ag's new planter arrived from port at the end of the month. The interns have worked hard on getting it put together before planting starts. With only partial parts arriving daily, they were able to put it together over the course of two weeks. In all it took about five days of work. Shown here are the first five days of assembly with the final construction stages shown.

Day 1: Arrival from port, crates emptied and initial assembly begins.

Crate 1: Tires and Bauer Built Planter Bar.

Crate 2: Tanks and more.

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Final Stages of Assembly, completed planter to be shown in use in field.

INTERNS TAKE IN THE LOCAL WATERFALLS BEFORE PLANTING GETS BUSY: On the same road to the north farm, also known as Soybean Ring Road, you can turn off and find some beautiful waterfalls. This time of year the water is lower on the falls and river so you can get closer to them. They are worth the short offroad drive to see.

View from below of the first waterfall and the river flowing downstream to the second set 25 km away.

The second set of waterfalls from a distance and a view looking down one of the falls.

BRAZIL WILD LIFE SIGHTINGS: The Interns have seen some local wildlife in the area. The following are a few: armadillos, local birds, emus, lizards and also some ants.

VIEWS FROM THE FARMS: The Interns have been staying on the farms (fazendas) in rotation of different work needed to be done on each. Here are a few photos as seen by the interns.

Boqueirao Fazenda: There are views of the yard and grain storage on site, along with a view of the fields from the yard before planting begins.

Global Fazenda: There are views of the yard and housing on site along with a view of the escarpment from the yard.

Rondonia Fazenda.

Lunch House at Rondonia along with views of the garden.

Rondonia has livestock on site including hogs, chickens and cattle.

Rondonia has a grain storage unit with drier on site. It has a wood burner to run the drier.

Views from on top of the Grain Storage and Drier at Rondonia.

The sunsets are picture perfect almost everynight from any location.

PLANTING PREPARATION GETS MOVING: Our interns are working on the three farm locations assisting with the fertilizer and lime spreading, also, getting the planters ready for use.

Stages of field work being done.

Additional to the field work, soil samples were taken.

Preparation work being done on the existing planters.

Additional row units arrived along with the new planter parts. Final stages of setting up the existing planter was worked on at the same time as the new planter. Some row units were not completely assembled at delivery and had to be assembled before attaching. Shown here are some views of row unit assembly.

COTTON GIN: The Interns tour Global Ag's cotton gin and learn more about the gin process. The following collection shows an overview of an entire ginning process.

This shows the samples from each individual cotton bale kept for quality control. These are all individually labelled and computer scanned for accuracy. The finished bales are stored inside.

The cotton is stored outside until it is time to gin shown below. (Picture to the right) This is the seed and waste from the ginning process. The seeds are collected and bagged for later use.

FALL SEMESTER INTERNS ARRIVE IN LUIS EDUARDO MAGALHAES:There are six new interns who arrived this fall ready to assist with all the planting preparations and more this season. They arrived in Brasilia and took a van ride up to Luis Eduardo Magalhaes and then began to familiarize themselves with the town, culture and, of course, Global Ag Investments farms and cotton gin taking in some sites along the way. The following pictures are all taken by the interns on their own personal experiences on their first month here.

Interns at the Sao Paulo Airport with views from the airplane on their way.

Interns on the van ride from Brasilia to Luis Eduardo Magalhaes and Interns at the escarpment near some Global Ag farms.

BRAZIL OFFICE: Here are a couple views of the main room.

COTTON HARVEST: This shows some of the progress of cotton harvest in late July.

COTTON GIN OFFICE CONSTRUCTION : Construction on the new office for Global Ag Investments begins.

CROP PROGRESS: Feijao (Edible Beans).

HARVEST BEGINS: Soybeans at harvest time.

CROP PROGRESS: Soybeans.

2008 INVESTOR TOURS: Investor Group Photos.

CROPS: Corn, Cotton and Soybeans.

Early and Late planted Corn both shown.

Cotton

Soybeans