Episode 31: Imported Dependency with Oscar Jimenez of Costa Rica

**Episode 31: Imported Dependency with Oscar Jimenez of Costa Rica**  **-Full video episode available on YouTube-** What happens when cattle, management, and genetics are imported into an environment they were never built for? In this episode, Patrick Powers sits down with Oscar Jimenez of Costa Rica to talk through what he is seeing in both dairy and beef production across the country. For years, Costa Rica has followed many of the same high-input models used in the United States and Canada. Imported genetics. Imported grain. Barns. Cut-and-carry forage. More labor. More equipment. More pressure on the producer. But as Oscar explains, many of the problems showing up today are not just management problems. They are adaptation problems. The conversation walks through the real cost of cattle that require too much help to function. Open cows. Long calving intervals. Assisted fertility. Hormones. Parasite pressure. Declining body condition. And systems that slowly become too expensive and too stressful to maintain. Oscar also shares his own family’s experience in dairy, where moving away from a labor-heavy, barn-based system and back toward pasture changed more than the operation. It changed the people in it. From there, the conversation turns to cattle culture. Shows, popular genetics, and market expectations continue to influence what producers select for, even when those cattle may not hold up under heat, humidity, parasites, and grass-based production. We also discuss the opportunity ahead. Locally adapted tropical genetics. Grass-fed markets. Regenerative agriculture. Better financial tracking. And the need to bring the soil, the grass, and the animal back into the same conversation. At its core, this episode is about Costa Rica, but the lesson reaches much farther. The land still matters. Fertility still matters. Profitability still matters. And cattle have to fit the environment they are expected to work in. **Watch the full video episode on YouTube:** https://youtu.be/wQpQypkeVoE **Connect with Oscar Jimenez and Agro Regenera:** https://www.facebook.com/AgroRegCR **Check out Bos Sires:** https://www.bossires.com/ If this episode made you think differently about adaptation, fertility, or the real cost of imported production systems, share it with someone who is open to questioning the status quo. Follow or subscribe so you do not miss the next episode.