Agricultural

Feed sacks, trailers and the animals that ride in them:

a Guatemalan farm runs on all three, and each is judged on different things. Animal feed is mostly concentrate in quintal sacks, with hay bales and molasses alongside it. Livestock trailers run from a single-axle box for a couple of calves to a tandem-axle gooseneck built for grown cattle, and horse trailers sit in a group of their own: a horse needs headroom, partitions and a ramp it will walk up. Under livestock are the cows, pigs, goats and laying hens that move from one farm to another. Tractors and implements belong with machines and heavy equipment.

Concentrate by the quintal, chosen by its protein:

the percentage printed on the sack tells you more than the brand does. Dairy concentrates come at 18, 20 and 22 percent protein, and the high figure only pays on heavy-milking cows grazing poor grass; a beef herd or dry cows do not need it. Pig feed comes by stage, starter to finisher. A quintal of cattle concentrate runs roughly Q230 to Q260 new, and pig and sheep formulas cost more. Sealed sacks from a farm that has given up keeping stock go for less than that, and the discount should widen with the age of the date stamp: concentrate loses value as it sits, and once damp gets in it cakes and turns musty.

Bumper-pull, gooseneck or a stake rack on the pickup:

the choice starts with the pickup, not the trailer. A bumper-pull hitches to a ball on the rear receiver and suits a few animals behind a Hilux-sized pickup. A gooseneck locks onto a ball mounted through the bed, over the rear axle, so it carries more weight and tows steadier, but only on a pickup that has been fitted for it. For a single cow to the next village, a stake rack in the bed still does the job. Set the trailer’s rated load against the towing capacity in the pickup’s manual, animals included. Tandem axles share the load and keep you moving if a tyre goes, which matters on the dirt roads into farms in Petén or Alta Verapaz, where single-axle trailers take the worst of the beating.

Rust under a trailer floor and the date on a sack:

are where used farm goods hide their faults. Manure and urine eat the crossmembers and welds underneath, so get down and look before you look at the paint; on a wooden floor, push a screwdriver into the boards near the back. Jack each wheel and rock it for bearing play, check the coupler and safety chains, and plug the lights into your own pickup. On feed, read the manufacture date and lot, and turn down sacks that are caked, smell musty, show weevils or have been re-sewn. With an animal, watch it walk on level ground and look closely at the navel on a calf and at any fresh wound: screwworm is in the region, and a wound that smells is a reason to wait. Ask for the ownership papers and check that the brand burned into the hide matches them and the person handing the animal over.

A trailer or a stack of surplus sacks, ready for its next farm:

photographs do most of the work. For a trailer, show the floor from above and the frame from underneath, and give the axle count, rated load, inside length and height, hitch type and floor material. For feed, give product, protein, sack count and manufacture date, with the date legible in the photo. For animals, state breed or cross, age and the town where they can be seen, photograph each one side-on in daylight with the brand close up, and have the papers ready. Someone driving up from Santa Rosa to collect a gooseneck will bring their own pickup to hitch it, so say which ball it takes and leave the lights wired up so they can be tested on the spot.