As Argentines prepare to elect a new president next month, farmers in the South American country's ranching heartland fear more of the government policies they say risk changing the face of the legendary prairies forever.
"It makes me sad ... We're going to end up losing this," Caset said, gesturing toward the endless green fields dotted with herds of cattle.
Despite bumper harvests and soaring international prices for farm goods, many Argentine farmers are disillusioned. And with polls showing President Nestor Kirchner's senator wife expected to win the October 28 election, many fear a continuation of the beef export limits and price controls that Kirchner has imposed.
In country towns like Lobos, the figure of the Argentine cowboy, or gaucho, is already more myth than reality. Now, ranchers say even its cattle herds are threatened by policies that make the business unprofitable.
Government efforts to keep beef cheap for barbecue-loving Argentines may have boosted first lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's chances of election, but ranchers say price fixing and export restrictions smack of populism.
"The beef issue is political. The medium-term objective is to keep beef cheap and that makes it a bad business," said Caset, who runs his family's 600-hectare (1,480-acre) farm near Lobos. "But there'll be less beef. It's a short-term policy."
While he is betting on more lucrative grains crops, some neighbors are giving over land to luxury rural housing developments and polo clubs.
'GREEDY ELITISTS'
Argentina's farm lobby has often clashed with governments but relations have reached a new low with Kirchner in the last year or so. Farmers have staged strikes, Kirchner has snubbed industry events and his ministers have branded farmers "greedy elitists."
The center-left government says the country's agricultural riches should benefit everyone and that regulation is necessary to protect the nation's shoppers from soaring global prices for basic foodstuffs.
It argues that farmers have seen their incomes soar due to the government's commitment to maintain the peso currency weak against the dollar, making Argentine exports more competitive.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Agriculture Secretary Javier de Urquiza dismissed the protests of farmers as "an ideological problem" and said trying to tame the cost of beef and flour in the local market was just common sense in a nation where nearly 25 percent of the population live in poverty.
As next month's election draws closer, Argentina's numerous farming associations are citing the countryside's leading role in the nation's strong recovery from a 2001/2002 crisis, saying that means they deserve a place on the campaign agenda.
"It's urgent that in their platforms for the upcoming elections, political parties have concrete proposals for agriculture's role," Hugo Biolcati, vice president of the Argentine Rural Society, said in a recent speech.
Less than 60 miles from Buenos Aires, Lobos's neat main square and tractor showrooms seem a world away from the poor and sprawling outskirts of the capital where the Kirchners enjoy their strongest support.
Many local ranchers think the government is out of touch with country life, and say they just want to get on with their business without constant intervention in the market.
"The small rancher can't get by with his 50 animals," said rancher and trader Daniel Mantini, wearing a gaucho-style beret as he sipped the traditional mate tea through a silver straw.
"Why ban beef exports?" he said. "There are things that are just unfair and show these people don't understand the countryside. They never leave their offices."
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