In June of
2004, the Company purchased its first farm, NF1, a 1,027 hectare
(2,538 acre) tract of land in the municipality of Araguacu. At the
time of purchase, the farm contained 97 hectares (240 acres) of
pasture, with the balance in virgin cerrado (brush).
A permit to clear the farm was granted by the state of Tocantins in
September 2006, and clearing and development operations took place
in 2007 and 2008, with approximately 50 hectares remaining to be
cleared as of January 2010.
The farm has established pastures of 28.6 hectares (70.7 acres) and
in November of 2009, 378 hectares (934 acres) of soy, plus small
areas of corn and dryland rice were planted. When clearing is
complete, the farm will contain 425-450 hectares (1,050-1112 acres)
of cropland, representing 41-44% of the total farm area.
This farm is fully paid-off, and a clear title is held to the
property in the name of the Limitada. This farm was purchased at a
cost of 867,585 real in June of 2004, and was appraised in January
of 2010 for 2,954,700 real, a gain of 241% over purchase
price. Using an exchange rate of 1.75 real-per-USD, the farm
had a value in USD of $1,688,400.
Infrastructure has been added, with
new machinery storage facilities and worker housing and cafeteria
facilities constructed on the farm.
The May
2010 soybean harvest at the farm
averaged approximately 40 bushels per acre, with fields some
fields producing their 1st crop while others were in their 6th crop of soybeans since being converted from cerrado and pasture.
Some fields average as high as 54 bushels per acre.