The YF Agri Affairs trip continues in Chile and The Scottish Farmer managed to catch a word Andrew McGregor and Joanna Foubister, as they travelled by mini-bus south to Osorno.

Carluke dairy farmer, Andrew, said: “It was 30°C when we arrived in Santiago but we have moved south 1000km since then, travelling through wine growing country then soft fruits and hazelnuts, to here where is it mainly grass and maize.

"They call it the lake district and it has a lot of dairy cows but only a few beef cattle and very few sheep. They are all much further south in the country.

"It is peak grass growing season right now and I can see a lot of rye grass with clover in swards which are typically 10ha broken up with electric fences. It is not as fantastic grass as I had thought, but everyone is grazing cows.

"Most of the dairies we have seen are around the 150-cow mark with most high yielding Holsteins. Just about all the fields are rotational or strip grazed, but they are putting cows into parks with cover I would never think about back home.

“The agricultural land is wedged in between the Andes and the mountains by the sea, so everything is farmed. The steadings are not that fancy on the whole, but the cattle are outside most of the time," he added.

"Speaking to dairy farmers, they face many similar challenges to Scotland. Herd numbers are dropping, but herd sizes are growing and there’s not many young people keen to get into the sector.

"Here they seem to have more difficulty borrowing money from banks as people are reluctant to invest in agriculture, which means family farms struggle to expand. Land here is averaging around US$10,000 per ha, give or take.

"The milk price is the equivalent to 37p/litre and they are just paid on volume, with no constituents, while the beef price is around £3/kg. The minimum wage is US$4500 per year.

"We got some figures on the yields this year with wheat 12t/ha, barley 9.5t/ha and oilseed rape was 6.2t/ha. Potatoes are getting 80t/ha from a one-in-four rotation.

“There is a lot of talk about climate change, we are told farming in the north is getting impossible. And further south they are considering growing vines and fruits which previously was unthinkable,” said Andrew.

Orkney farmer, Joanna Foubister, explained that there was a huge focus on growing for the market and a high level of technical understanding amongst farmers.

She told us: “Everyone talks about their market and we’ve heard about fruit growers breeding varieties that travel better, timing harvests to suit Chinese New Year and beef farmers marketing grass-fed beef.

"We visited a lot of different types of farms and I was worried that as a beef farmer, I might not be able to learn from fruit growers, for instance. But their business focus and how they approach farming has meant I’ve learnt a lot.

"Farmers here definitely know their figures and how to produce for the market, but also they often have a laid back attitude with a good work life balance by the looks of it. The have a saying in Chile, ‘What will happen will happen and just let it flow.’

"They cook the beef here over the charcoal for BBQs and it’s some of the best I’ve eaten ... but don’t tell them that back home!”