A group of nearly 40 farmer members of the Colonias Unidas Cooperative, from Paraguay, visited parts of the Brazilian state Rio Grande do Sul (RS) last week with the aim of learning about different experiences with cooperative organizations and agricultural research. Their itinerary included the cooperatives Languiru (Teutônia, RS) and Garibaldi Winery (Garibaldi, RS), and Embrapa Wheat (Passo Fundo, RS). The cooperative's production manager, Eduardo Dietze, underscored the importance of farmers being able to see beyond their own properties, and learn about new experiences that can result in improvements to the production system. According to him, Paraguay is the country that has been growing the most in Latin America: “alongside the economy, there has been a growth in the consumption of animal protein, which moves the entire grain chain”. For the farmer Cristiano Wachholz, at Embrapa the thing that called the most attention was the wheat breeding program. He explained that the wheat cultivars he uses in Paraguay are Brazilian, and expressed he was pleased to visit the development of materials at Embrapa Wheat. “We liked the dual-purpose wheat a lot; it is not well-known in Paraguay yet, but it has great potential since many properties work with grains and dairy”. The Cooperative Colonias Unidas was created in the 1950s, in the town of Obligado, in the Paraguayan South. It currently has 4,000 associates and over 800 employees. The cooperative's main products are grains, milk, and yerba-mate. Translation: Mariana Medeiros