They arrived from Scotland in 1878 and have been dedicated to sheep and cattle production for four generations. Together with WCS Argentina, they promote regenerative and wildlife-friendly management with the aim of restoring and conserving Patagonia’s natural grasslands.
Brothers Juan and Esteban Gallie manage 121,500 hectares of land in Chubut and Santa Cruz and are pioneers in applying regenerative management techniques that aim to care for the soil, keep livestock healthy, and coexist with wildlife and the natural environment. Four years ago, with the support of WCS Argentina, and thanks to their hard work, they obtained Wildlife Friendly™ certification for their merino wool.
How did the Gallie family’s history with farming and Patagonia begin?
Juan Gallie (JG): It began with my great-grandfather John Hamilton, who was the son of a tailor and the nephew of a cattle farmer in northern Scotland. It was this uncle on his mother’s side who encouraged him and told him that they were looking for young people to work in the Malvinas Islands for a large livestock company. At the age of 20, he embarked on this adventure and traveled first to Montevideo and from there took a ship to the Malvinas Islands. After five years of working on the islands, in 1883, the opportunity arose to go to Punta Arenas to work for the British consul, who was also the first cattle rancher in the Magellan region, Henry Reynard. From this job, he set up his platform for growth by partnering with a Scottish colleague and friend, William Saunders, renting and acquiring land over the years, both in Argentina and in Magallanes, Chile. To do this, the first thing they did was organize a drive with two other Scots, Jamieson and MacLean, as there were not many sheep in the region. So they went to Buenos Aires and took the train to Bahía Blanca, where they bought 400 horses, and drove them to Fortin Conesa in Río Negro. There they bought 4,000 Creole sheep mixed with Merinos and began what was called “The Great Drive of 1888/89.” It took them a year and a half to connect Fortin Conesa with Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz. It was quite an adventure finding the best route, crossing the sheep across rivers, searching for water along the way, dealing with pumas that attacked their sheep at night, and various other vicissitudes. They managed to mark the route for subsequent cattle drives and thus populate their fields. On the other hand, there is the story of my great-uncle Andrew Gallie, who emigrated from Tain, Scotland, and set up ranch management offices in Punta Arenas and Río Gallegos, bringing my grandfather from Scotland to work with him. Andrew sadly died young, and my grandfather Alexander took over the business. After my grandfather, my father Andrés and my aunt Ray continued with the business, and then us, the fourth generation.
How did the idea, or the need, for regenerative livestock farming come about?
Esteban Gallie (EG): In the 1980s, my father was already talking to us about overgrazing, because we were already seeing losses in productivity and it was clear that the land was very overburdened.
JG: He was quite a pioneer in measuring what the land produced. About 30 years ago, he began checking pastures and taking care of the resource. From there, he switched from extensive management to a variable adjustment method and, years later, to a holistic method. We reduced the load and began to make more planned use of the forage. We see the field as a resource, we always try to take care of it, not to overwhelm it. In well-managed livestock farming, the load is always adjusted because, ultimately, the sheep are the first to suffer, so you have to strike a balance.
EG: We started with the idea of improving the pasture, which is the natural capital of the farm, and we gradually incorporated other attributes. We are always learning about new management methods, and in 2009 we began to implement holistic management at Estancia Morro Chico, in a section of the farm called El Zurdo, to move away from continuous grazing (leaving the sheep in the same pasture all the time) and introduce rest periods. We started with very few resources, very few pastures, and very little water. And in the last four years, we have made a lot of progress and have come to understand what this type of management is all about.
How did you implement these regenerative livestock techniques?
JG: It is a change in management that requires people to observe the animal closely alongside the fauna and flora; it is quite a learning process. To implement the holistic method, we first had to adapt the infrastructure, adjust the pens, and make divisions to improve water distribution. It also involved a change in the way we work and in the culture of the team, as well as in the building infrastructure so that people could work better. It required a lot of investment in training courses and, obviously, mistakes were made. Those of us who started first incurred enormous costs. With practice, we learned that in addition to looking at the pasture factor, we also had to observe the condition of the animal and its productivity.
EG: Before, we used to think about how many animals we needed to produce a certain amount of wool, but now we first look at the capacity of the field. This requires constant, systematic work with a clear objective, and the team also needs to be clear about why they are doing what they are doing. It was quite a learning curve and an evolution. From very extensive management, everything improved: animal welfare, training all staff on how to treat animals, strategic supplementation, genetics to have resilient and more efficient animals, body condition, feed—everything began to fall into place. It took 25 years of work and learning from mistakes, as well as a lot of investment. There are many details that come together and are reflected in the animals and the pasture.
What changes and improvements did this bring to the field and production?
JG: We have noticed that the land looks much healthier. For example, on one of our farms, the stocking rate has been reduced significantly. It now has 7,800 sheep and 350 cattle, compared to 20,000 sheep in the 1990s. To take care of the land and not exhaust it, you have to take care of resources and make fine adjustments to costs so that you don’t need to increase the stocking rate. If you have “extra land,” you can approach winter differently. We believe we must continue with this system of investing in dividing the land with electric fencing to make better use of the available pasture and allow for rest periods. This will allow us to continue improving the land and gradually increase the stocking rate.
EG: In addition to seeking a resilient environment, it is also necessary for the animal to be resilient. For example, in cows, with four years of drought, we reduced the load by half and achieved a 92% calf marking rate, with six-month-old calves weighing 200 kilograms on average. We have also applied a lot of genetic selection, seeking to have animals with easy calving, moderate frame, high growth rate in calves, and docility. This year, our sheep achieved 104% marking, which is reproductive efficiency, and the lambs had very good weight, and we obtained a batch of very good quality wool (20 microns with 69% comb yield). These are great indicators after the terrible winter of 2024 and are the result of a whole package of measures that were implemented: technological, animal welfare, strategic supplementation, fencing, caring for the animals and the staff.
What is your view on the coexistence of livestock farming and wildlife?
JG: Being in the countryside in Patagonia is a way of life. I think Patagonian farmers are very conservationist; they have always had a lot of respect for fauna and flora. I think you have to look at how nature works and adapt to it. Understand that sheep are not dominant, that they have to coexist with the whole system. I am particularly interested in taking a holistic view and recording biodiversity in the countryside. My great-grandfather and grandfather always had an almost philosophical, metaphysical view of the entire system of coexistence. It is important to conserve wildlife, and we also have to conserve the flora that sustains the wildlife. For example, it is important to maintain the shrub communities, where there are many birds and small mammals such as cavies, skunks, armadillos, maras, and wildcats. These shrub communities are spectacular because they provide shelter for all animals. And everything that provides shelter and flora is very important in Patagonia. What I like most is to walk through the countryside and see it healthy, with native wildlife. For example, I constantly discover lagoons with bustards (cauquenes), places where bandurrias nest, and you see many foxes and choiques. Now in our planning we have taken the choiques into account and we are also going to start taking the bustards into account, for example, considering the grass they eat in our equation. We plan to do the same with the guanacos, because they pose a challenge due to their numbers and their consumption of grass and water.
EG: I think we did a layered job that came from becoming aware of the place itself. First, we took care of the grasslands, then the native forest, then the birds and wildlife of the area. For example, we decided not to set traps for foxes, which was a very common practice in the area because you got paid for each animal you caught, and it was seen as a source of income. We tried to evolve and correct things. From all of this comes a sense of the market, that we are producing this wool under certain conditions, and the idea of generating an economic incentive through good practices.
What was it like working with WCS Argentina on Wildlife Friendly™ certification for fibers?
EG: In our efforts to improve wool marketing, we contacted WCS Argentina to obtain Wildlife Friendly™ certification, hoping that the market would recognize the economic value of everything we were implementing. And that’s when we started the whole process of certification and recognition of the field.
JG: Working with certifications requires a huge effort, not only financially, but also in terms of changing the habits of the work team. But it has the power to tell a story, to convey what we do to achieve responsible production.
And in that sense, what is the relationship with textile companies like?
EG: We are interested in talking to brands that identify with this way of producing and share the same values. We want to invite them to the countryside to show them in situ what wool production is like and everything that it entails. We also know that there are Argentine designers and entrepreneurs interested in this type of production, who are looking to buy without intermediaries. Unfortunately, wool production in Patagonia is declining, it is becoming increasingly difficult to be a producer, and the territory is becoming increasingly uninhabited. Hopefully, many brands and entrepreneurs will show interest in Patagonia, which is a place that provides quality wool, with certifications and many distinctive attributes. People who come to Patagonia fall in love with its landscapes, its people, and its culture; that is what we need to preserve, that is our added value…our history.
Promoting regenerative management in Argentina
The methodology recommended by WCS Argentina to promote livestock management through regenerative and wildlife-friendly proposals with scientifically endorsed methodologies includes the evaluation of natural grasslands to estimate receptivity, adjustments to livestock load based on field surveys, grazing rotations according to pasture receptivity and available production infrastructure, adjustments to the livestock reproductive management calendar to improve resource use, consideration of wild herbivore forage consumption in livestock planning, and use of tools to mitigate conflicts with wildlife, such as livestock guardian dogs against predators.
All the practices proposed by WCS Argentina are part of adaptive management of livestock farms. They are conceived and designed to adapt to the specific conditions of each producer and aim to improve production results by increasing productivity per unit of livestock, without substantially modifying current management practices. In addition, a monitoring system is developed that allows for periodic evaluation of the response of pastures and soil to management, in both short-term and long-term time frames.
