DeereMe88
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This is the main crop we produce, alfalfa. This is grown for hay of which we take 9-10 cuts a year. Cutting interval depends on time of year but generally around 30 days
Hi Jellybean, thanks for the reply! I will get more pics up for you soon!Hi There DeereMe88, I worked in Saudi back in the 1970's, first on a dairy unit called Sanabel and then on a new unit at Haradh. It would have been primitive then compared to Almarai's current setup. I remember it as very tough going, myself and wife for 270 cows plus one Indian helper. Shopping was once per month, driving to Al Kharj between milkings. I loved seeing alfalfa growing and getting so many cuts off it, would love to be able to feed my deer on it. Best of all was picking ripe water melons off the pivot and just scoffing them. Another great thing was seeing all the birds that stopped off on migration because of the green circles and water and abundance of insects.
Do please post some more pics of how it is now.
Nearest town is Hail which is about 45 mins away, nearest small town is Al Ajfar but not sure if it will show up on google. Farm im on now is 60 pivots but the main farm is quite close by, it has around 400 pivots. You can make them out as their in a rectangle pattern running east to west. The main farm is where i started working, the farm site is 35km east to west and 10km north to south. I now work on a smaller arable farm which is the personal farm of Prince Sultan, who owns the company.Looking at the green circles in the desert on Google,makes them look surreal. What is your nearest town so I can try and see the irrigated circles that you mange,thank you.
They have bought land in Arizona and Argentina, and are actively looking elsewhere. Arable crop production in Saudi will not continue for long, but no-one knows exactly when itl stop. Water is starting to run out, wells are now very deep and drilling new wells is now illegal. Recharge is dropping each year hence why they are looking elsewhere to grow forage.I see Almari bought land in Arizona U.S.A, to grow Alfalfa,according to the press atricle the idea has not gone down very well (no pun intended if you read the article). Is it true that wells are starting to run dry in Saudi due to huge amounts of water being pumped from them?
They have bought land in Arizona and Argentina, and are actively looking elsewhere. Arable crop production in Saudi will not continue for long, but no-one knows exactly when itl stop. Water is starting to run out, wells are now very deep and drilling new wells is now illegal. Recharge is dropping each year hence why they are looking elsewhere to grow forage.
Almarai has grown exponentially over its 30 odd year lifetime, they have options of other places to go and they have no intention of slowing down. The dairy side is only one part of it, they also have a huge poultry division, based at the main Hail farm project, they have a processing factory there thats killing and processing 2 million birds a week! Wheat production has been banned and maize corn will be soon, so they will have to buy more land elsewhere in the near futureWonder who will get the land first the Chinese or Saudis',when push comes to shove which one will have the deepest pocket?. My last sentence was a bit flippant ,but this seems not to be a good situation to be developing ,when such huge countries start to buy up land around the world. Just shows how concerned some countries must be for the future food supplies.
I agree, but the mindset here is different. They want maximum production and when they cant do that here, they will go somewhere else.If the well drop-off is that bad they are in serious trouble, a healthy aquifer is key to everything.
Are you guys doing anything to conserve your water..? trailing drops...sub surface...even a LEAPA approach
What is your static level now..?
Colorado is beautiful, stayed there a few years ago while travelling across the US. What do you grow?San Luis Valley, south central Colorado.
I believe sub surface drip is about $2k acre
Almarai has grown exponentially over its 30 odd year lifetime, they have options of other places to go and they have no intention of slowing down. The dairy side is only one part of it, they also have a huge poultry division, based at the main Hail farm project, they have a processing factory there thats killing and processing 2 million birds a week! Wheat production has been banned and maize corn will be soon, so they will have to buy more land elsewhere in the near future