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 …
Dr. Soliman Is Face of USGC In Egypt
The face and voice of the U.S. Grains Council in Egypt is Dr. Hussein Soliman pictured in the center of our Corn Mission group while visiting our last stop in the country. He has been working on behalf of U.S. grain producers for almost 20 years and has not only seen Egypt become one of our top importers but can …
Mixing His Own Buffalo Feed
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 …
Book – Review Our Choice
“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 …
Feeding DDGS To Water Buffalo
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. …
Improving Beef and Dairy Herds In Egypt
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 …
Cairo University Ag School
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 …
Improving Feedgrain Access In Egypt
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 …
Egypt Grain Inspection Lab
The Executive Director of the Regional Center For Food and Feed is Dr. Mohamed F. Emara. He was our host this morning for a tour of their Grain Inspection Lab. I remember touring the lab on my trip here with USDA back in 1999. RCFF operates three regional feed grain laboratories, one in the Giza headquarters, one at EI-Oekheila Port …
New Shipping Port In Morocco
Morocco is nearing completion of a major new port facility south of Casablanca. The El Jaddah Port was one of the stops for the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission. While there we met with Ammar Bouchaib, pictured left, who is not only involved in shipping grain into the country but also has a large storage facility for feed products. I …