I spent a few days in Torreon, Mexico in mid-June doing some consulting and speaking for an international agribusiness. Quite a few U.S. university professors and consultants make the occasional trip down there. If there’s any public agricultural education system in Mexico similar to Cooperative Extension in the U.S. it’s pretty well hidden. The farmers are very interested in technical and management information; I had about 70 people at my seminar, probably 60 of them farmers representing well over 100,000 dairy cows. Dairy herd size ranges from big to huge, thousands of cows per farm. There are no “family farms” in Torreon, at least none I’ve seen in the two times I’ve been there. And there was another seminar, sponsored by a different agribusiness, the following night.
This trip had somewhat of an eerie feeling: The government fired a passel of security guards for mass corruption and the Torreon area has a serious drug problem, so they flooded the city with Federales. It was a scary sight: Military pickup trucks with six soldiers to a truck, two in the cab and four in back, two sitting and two standing. They travel in convoy, and it’s ill-advised for a motorist to get between one pickup and another. Dressed in black including helmets and full face masks, and all with automatic weapons at the ready. About two dozen of them were staying at our hotel, the Torreon Hampton Inn. Many of them were in their 20s, and out of uniform they were quite friendly. But it’s still a bit of a shock when one saunters past in the swimming pool area holding an automatic weapon.
They say it ain’t the heat but the humidity, and that sure is true. It was over 100F the first day we were there, but with so little humidity that it was bearable. In fact, in the shade with a bit of a breeze it wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Sunblock is highly recommended, especially for the light-skinned, as is a good hat. Temps can (and did) reach 110F, and there’s no humidity to temper the sun’s rays. Fortunately, I have a bit of American Indian blood in my heritage and as long as I’m reasonably cautious I brown but don’t burn.