Arasco launches awareness campaign to educate ranchers about whole feed

'Calculate It Right' campaign aims to educate camels and sheep ranchers about the importance cost difference in feeding their livestock by exchanging barley and clover as feed for their animals with whole feed rich with useful high value ingredients for their livestock.

The program of the first campaign which began in Al Kharj area includes competitions for ranchers on how to calculate the cost of livestock feed correctly and in a simplified way. The campaign will also include interviews with ranchers to educate them and alert them about all the proper nutrition ways for livestock, so that the use of barley and clover only becomes the only staple food for their livestock and that they should shift to whole and balanced feed in order to obtain the least cost of purchasing and highest rates of food conversion as well as the qualities desirable to the consumer.

Dr. Tareq Al Shuweimi, the Assistant President for marketing and sales "ARASCO"

" the shift of cattle and livestock breeders to the whole feed or "Wafi feed" will contribute a lot in reducing green feed growing in the Kingdom therefore the feed industry in the kingdom will find economical alternatives for the green feed. This will of course reduce groundwater waste which means saving of water consumption in the Kingdom by at least 30% of water consumption annually. There is no doubt that this is an economic advantage brought about by 'Wafi Feed"

compared to barley which is a concentrated feed that needs a filling substance i.e. clover. But in the case of "Wafi"

the rancher does not need to spend more money to by clover thereby he will reduce the cost by about 50% on the condition that he will not make any other components to it'.

The diversity of food ingredients contained in "Wafi", such barley, corn, soybeans, clover, bran, minerals and vitamins, makes it superior to barley alone, pointing out that these ingredients had been carefully examined by very famous animal resources specialists and has been tested in cooperation with King Saudi University, Riyadh, whereby it proved to give excellent results in terms of food conversion rates and the external form of the animal and the quality of its meat.

The Executive added: "This awareness campaign that began in Kharj is the first of seven of its kind which the company plans to launch in all regions of the Kingdom specifically in Riyadh, Qassim, Al-Ahsa and Hafr Al batin". Dr. Tareq added that the campaign will contain competitions on how to calculate costs in the right way and car prizes would be given to winning ranchers.

Dr. Alshuweimi believes that the launch of these awareness and instruction campaigns by his Company goes hand in hand with the Government's approval recently of a national plan to promote the composite feed industry which requires government subsidies to composite materials involved in the manufacture of animal feed according to its composites of energy and protein, which is aimed at reducing dependence on barley feed as a basic feed, thus saving the financial resources allocated to it as subsidies have increased to high levels within few years, in addition to strengthening water security through stopping waste of groundwater depleted in the cultivation of green fodder by enabling the livestock feed industry to find economic alternatives for green feed, and reduce pressure on natural pastures.