BEEF magazine's fourth annual trip to Brazil is set for Jan. 12-25, 2006. Clint Peck, BEEF senior editor, and Greg Lamp, The Corn and Soybean Digest editor, will lead the tour exploring Brazil's tropical ag system and assess its strengths and weaknesses as a major competitor for international markets.

“In today's global marketplace, ranchers and farmers need to know their competitors,” Peck says. “As in the past, this information-packed tour will focus on cattle and soybean production systems in this growing ag powerhouse.”

Following a briefing by diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in São Paulo, the group will visit a variety of cattle and crop production operations and Brazilian agribusinesses. Highlights include tours of a beef packing plant, an ag research center and a major international export facility. In-country flights will take the group to the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná in west-central and southern Brazil.

Among the traditional tourist sites is a visit to Foz do Iguassu and the Cataratas do Iguassu — the tropical waterfalls listed among the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. The tour winds up in Rio de Janeiro where the tour's beachfront hotel offers easy access to this beautiful city's world-class tourist sites.

The tour package price of $4,500 (double occupancy and based on a minimum of 30 participants) includes travel visa; airfare to and from Brazil; in-country travel by air, bus and train; business-class lodging and most meals; along with local guides and translators. The registration deadline is Nov. 4. Credit card payments require a 3% surcharge.

For more info, contact Peck at cpeck@primediabusiness.com or 406/896-9068; or Renata Stephens, Capital Travel Solutions, at renatas@ctsinc.com, 651/287-4900 or 800/635-5488. View a complete itinerary at www.ctsinc.com.