“I don’t do impersonations. I can do a wounded elephant! I can do a really good cow! And because of the amount of time I spent in North Yorkshire, I do a variety of sheep. All of which I will be happy to roll out for you!

– Patrick Stewart, Actor

Buenos Aires – Brown, black, white, spotted. That’s about the extent of my cow knowledge from the outside. Given my profession, I’m used to dealing with them from the inside out, in the form of milk, cheese, or steak. It’s not that I can’t recognize one or never came across one during my life. I grew up on the edge of farmland, and cows were easy to ride by on a bicycle. I know people who used to go “cow tipping”. I know there are dairy cows and meat cows. But, put me at the state fair, which is more or less what the Farm and Agriculture Exhibition 2006 at La Rural was during the last week, and I’m at a loss. I now know a trifle more about them than I did, but not much. Mostly just lists of names and having seen cows that I’d never seen before – there are black and white striped cows, there are hairy cows, and cows with humps! Who knew?

The exhibition consisted of multiple pavillions, many of which were displaying livestock – 6 breeds of chickens, 20 of cows, llamas, alpacas, goats, chinchillas, 4 types of bunny rabbit, 14 of horses, nutria (giant water rats), 9 types of sheep, 2 of ducks, 3 of turkeys, 6 of pigs, and a variety of other animals. There were also individual exhibitions dedicated to a large number of provinces and/or agricultural regions of Argentina, along with various products they offered – mostly cured meats (including the below pictured pork sausage shaped like a pig) and cheese – the form in which I’m more familiar with livestock. There was farm equipment. There were egg incubators. There were rabbit and chinchilla fur accessories; native craft items; horse and cow shows, and restaurants. Where else can you have this much fun for a mere 10 pesos for the day?