16. Alternative fodders to alfalfa must certainly be considered. Many crop residues can be fed to cattle. They will pick over the stalks of sorghum, maize, millet, etc, after harvest and will eat barley, wheat or oat straw and chaff, sweet potato and groundnut tops, the leaves of cabbages and cauliflowers, chopped up banana stems, surplus sweet potatoes, melons, pumpkins, carrots, radishes, turnips, etc. Green forages other than alfalfa that might be successfully grown include maize, Sudan grass, millet, dolichos beans and cowpeas (the 'lubia' and 'lubia afin' of the Sudan). Leucaena glauca (Peruvian strain ex Australia) is reported to be a useful fodder at the El Kod experiment station next door in Southern Yemen, and 'Blue Panicum', a productive grass which is possibly the Makari-kari strain from Africa, has done well at the Qatif station in Saudi Arabia, Rhodes grass is another useful grass that has been grown at Digdaga. Experi ments might be made with these crops on the new experimental plot. Seed might be available on the experiment stations at Sohar and Niswa in Oman, from El Kod in Southern Yemen, Hofuf or Qatif in Saudi Arabia, Digdaga in the Trucial States, Wad Medani in Sudan, or obtained from commercial seedsmen. Asgrow and Ferry-Morse are the firms mainly used in the region. 17. If animal husbandry is to be successful, veterinary assistance is essential, including advice on feeding and making up rations for local cattle and any improved cattle that may be imported, and on the marketing of cattle, meat, milk products, hides, etc. Advice is available from a visiting veterinarian at Salalah and contact has been established with Digdaga, so there is no need to say more about this here. One comment I would make. The Zebu-type cattle I saw at Salalah looked so well that it would seem worth exploring the possi bilities of crossing the local cattle with Zebu bulls such as Rei Sindhi or Sahiwal for meat and ghee production. They would probably suit the local conditions better than the Friesians, which at Digdaga are being intensively managed. 18. The next thing to look at is the coconut palms. We have no details of the quantity produced from the few thousand trees round Salalah, but at present prices it might be more profitable to make copra, now quoted at round about $230 per ton/ équivalent to about £15 per 1000 nuts assuming 6000 nuts to produce a ton of copra, than to ship the whole nuts to Muscat for $7 a thousand delivered of which between £3 and £4 goes in shipping and handling costs. Copra would - 7
