The Ammar Beef Feedlot is owned by Ammar Abd El Fettah, picture on the right. He’s standing next to local U.S. Grains Council Consultant Mustapha El Youssoufi. The feedlot was our first stop on our Corn Mission tour of Morocco this morning. Ammar has been in the beef business through his family which goes back generations.
I interviewed them after we walked through the operation which included “the old and the new.” By that I mean that Ammar has built a large new modern feedlot operation which is nearing completion and it sits adjacent to his traditional style feedlot.
The USGC has worked with cooperatives and now private companies like Ammar’s to convince them to try modern style open feedlots. These are less labor intensive and the animals are much more productive. Mustapha says Ammar ran trials that showed that the system works and what he’s building will become a model for other producers in the country and region.
So when it comes to feed for these animals concentrated feed is becoming more desirable and available. Morocco produces some of its own feed products which includes a little bit of corn silage and wheat straw. But when it comes to concentrates they’re now including corn, ddgs and corn gluten feed as well as soybean meal. Ammar says the project is working and he’s very happy with the assistance of the USGC and American farmers.
He’s now planning a meat packing facility and distribution business. You can listen to my interview with them below and watch a short video clip taken at the new feedlot.
The Director for the Mediterranean and Africa for the U.S. Grains Council is Kurt Shultz. He’s been our main guide and font of information so far.
One of our guides here in Morocco says the country is very diverse. One of the examples he used was that you might see a BMW stopped at a traffic light side by side with one of these. He was right.
Besides the rocks I think I saw more shepherds today than almost anything else as we drove around Morocco. The fields and hills are covered with them. There were children watching a flock, women, men, groups of people. You name it. Sheep are pretty much everywhere. When we drove into Casablanca this afternoon, a town of over 4 million, I even saw one tied up outside a bar off the sidewalk on the main thoroughfare we were driving on.
Just a couple of weeks ago, former NAFB president Ken Root was grinning from ear to ear as he accepted the coveted Farm Broadcaster of the Year award from the 
Here’s another report from the 
Here’s the moon over the Atlantic as seen from my hotel room here in El Jadida. Last night we met with the local area USGC representatives and ate a very good Moroccan meal. I’ve never eaten lamb that tasted so good. We learned what a growing market Morocco is for U.S. grain and will be seeing evidence of that in our meetings through the end of the week.