Estancia
Estancia ( Spanish / Portuguese ) or Estanzia (German: cattle farm ), in Brazil also Fazenda , is the name of an estate in South America on which stationary, extensive pasture farming - mainly with beef cattle, sheep and dairy cows - is operated. In the German-speaking area, the English expression " ranching " is mostly used for this type of grazing in natural open landscapes .
In Argentina , Chile , Paraguay , Uruguay and the extreme south of Brazil , the term estancia (literally "home", "living space") came up in the first half of the 19th century to denote properties on which local cattle was raised which replaced the simple capture and slaughter of cattle imported from Europe by the Spaniards and feral in the pampas .
Originally, the estancia did not refer to the property, but the grassland section used as pasture for the animals. The property, i.e. the manor house of the managing owner (the estancieros ), the so -called ranchos - also called puestos - for the peons who work there and some farm buildings such as storage sheds, smaller stables for horses, poultry and pigs, etc., which form the estate Building complex, on the other hand, is called a casco .
Today an estancia can be anything that stands out from small or medium-sized farms due to its size. In the agricultural heartland of Argentina and Uruguay, the Pampa Húmeda with its z. In some cases, extremely fertile soils may already entitle 300 hectares to be called estancia , while in Patagonia , beyond the agronomic dry line , where pastures are not very productive and therefore at least 40 hectares of land must be available per cattle, the threshold is around 30,000 hectares like.
If on the one hand estancia is an agronomic-economic term, it also has a cultural, folk meaning. Just as the term ranch is inevitably associated with the prairie and the cowboys , the estancia is associated with gaucho romance and grazing cattle in the endless pampas.
Since the 1990s, the cultural heritage of the traditional estancias has been increasingly becoming a focus of attention in the respective countries. It can also be observed that the historic estancias in particular, due to their prestigious and luxurious flair, are increasingly being owned by foreigners with high purchasing power. Estancias are now increasingly used for tourism in Patagonia , the environs of Buenos Aires and Uruguay, for example .
gallery
Estancia La Paz, Cordoba, Argentina
Estancia La Oriental, Junín, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Estancia Guardia del Monte, Rocha, Uruguay
Estancia San Eugenio, Florida, Uruguay
Abandoned casco of a former stately estancia, Florida, Uruguay
literature
- Large scale cattle breeding (The Estancia) in The La Plata countries by Herbert Wilhelmy and Wilhelm Rohmeder , p. 177ff