Marketing Grain To The Middle East

Chuck Zimmerman

The Regional Director for the U.S. Grains Council coordinating our Corn Mission visit to Jordan is Joe O’Brien. Joe covers the Middle East and part of India. He says that Jordan is “one of the bright spots of the Middle East.” There are biotech issues in the region though, especially toward Turkey and India. He says it’s a very competitive …

Audio, Corn, Grains, International, USGC

Corn Grower Says “Show Me” The Market

Chuck Zimmerman

Fellow Show Me State resident and corn grower from the southeast part of Missouri, Jim Stuever, took a few moments to provide his thoughts on how the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team is doing after arriving in Amman, Jordan. In the photo, Jim (pictured left), is listening to a presentation we’re having from Mohamed Kraishy, USDA Ag Specialist in …

Audio, Corn, Grains, International, USGC

Producer Thoughts On Egypt

Chuck Zimmerman

The U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission Team has concluded visiting Egypt. Tomorrow it’s on to Jordan. Before finishing today we sat down for our debrief which includes documenting our observations and making recommendations based on what we saw. Those will be provided to USGC in the form of a final report. I have updated the Eqypt photo album from our …

Ag Groups, Audio, Corn, Grains, USGC

Mixing His Own Buffalo Feed

Chuck Zimmerman

Now that the modern form of open feedlot management has come to Egypt there are an increasing number of producers using the system. One of them is Ashraf Taha, pictured on the right. The U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission visited the El-Amel Feedlot this morning to see his operation. He had very few animals left after having just sold most …

Audio, Corn, International, USGC

Book – Review Our Choice

Joanna Schroeder

“Producing first generation ethanol from corn is a mistake,” writes Al Gore in his new book, “Our Choice A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.” The book details the issues surrounding global warming, and presents various options to curb the issue. As a writer in the agricultural industry, I paid extra attention to the chapter regarding biofuels. It came as …

Corn, Ethanol

Feeding DDGS To Water Buffalo

Chuck Zimmerman

The Chairman of the Egyptian Buffalo Producer’s Association is Dr. Saad Alhayani (pictured left). He also owns and operates a very new open water buffalo feedlot and dairy. The U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team toured there this afternoon. I’ve got lots of photos in the photo album. These cute, sweet, little creatures are very different than your average bovine. …

Audio, Beef, Corn, International, USGC

Improving Beef and Dairy Herds In Egypt

Chuck Zimmerman

Presenting information at Cairo University on the Cattle Information Center was Dr. Samy Abou-Bakr. He describes that there are two different water buffalo dairy and feedlot systems. One is old and one is new. In the older model, the herd size is small, handled with lots of labor and very little if any records are kept. In the new, the …

Audio, Beef, Corn, Dairy, International, University, USGC

Cairo University Ag School

Chuck Zimmerman

The first stop for the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team today was Cairo University and specifically the ag school. Our first presenter was Dr. Rabie Ragab Sadek who gave us an overview of the Center Information Systems Center of Egypt. The project was created to develop a cattle information system that would provide statistically representative, adequate data for cattle …

Audio, Corn, Education, International, University, USGC

Improving Feedgrain Access In Egypt

Chuck Zimmerman

In Egypt, the Agricultural Minister Counselor for the United States is Jonathan Gressel (pictured center). He met with the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team today at a late lunch and we really appreciate him taking time for the visit. John says his primary mission is market access and development for U.S. products. He says that currently Egypt is an …

Audio, Corn, International, USDA, USGC