Ag department gets into the business of beef
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government is moving into the business of beef after importing 22 Red Poll cattle from Jamaica, which, after completing quarantine, will form the base herd for a breeding programme that will be managed by the Department of Agriculture. The goal is to increase local livestock numbers and improve local beef production.
The CIG has established a National Livestock Development Programme (NLDP), through which the three bulls and nineteen heifers were bought with public cash from the Cattle Breeder’s Society of Jamaica and airlifted here last month.
“We have prioritised agriculture and food security during the past two years because improving the well-being of Caymanians means ensuring that safe, nutritious food is accessible, available and affordable,” said Agriculture Minister Jay Ebanks. “Importing these cattle will substantially increase domestic cattle production, improve overall cattle genetics, and reduce the need to import beef in the future.”
The publicly-funded NLDP is focused on developing local livestock to reduce imports of goats and to improve local cattle herds and beef quality. It is also aimed at implementing a breeding programme to rapidly enhance local genetics and modernise and improve the country’s livestock.
“Importing purebred cattle suited to local conditions is a more sustainable approach to improving domestic livestock and an important component of efforts to enhance local genetics, upgrade domestic herds and support important research,” said Acting Director of Agriculture Brian Crichlow. “These imported cattle are a significant step forward for government’s Cattle Breeding Programme and efforts to improve the domestic livestock sector.”
Using the imported cattle and the new Cattle Breeding Centre on Cayman Brac, the Department of Agriculture will establish a centre of excellence through which it will provide stud bull services, calves for sale and semen for artificial insemination.
Future plans include the development of a Livestock Breeding Centre on Grand Cayman, the introduction of embryo transfer technology and the training of team members in the Veterinary Service Unit at the Department of Agriculture to improve efficiency in animal breeding technology.
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Category: Agriculture, Business
A mooving story if there ever was one.
Back in the 1950s, trophy billfish and blue fin tuna were considered inedible, or sub-pet food grade in the USA, buried in trenches with excavators. Those same blue fin today would fetch millions of yen at Tsukiji. Wild Ox/Beef farming and consumption began after last ice age sometime circa 8000BCE, warthog/pork entered menus 5000BCE, and chicken around 2000BCE. Even a hundred years ago, beef was so tough it would be boiled first. Venison, lamb, rabbit and pheasant were the prized luxury proteins that won out over goat and ox. Try to find those in the supermarket today. Humans change their diets, and their protein preferences fall in and out of favour even faster in modern times. Those that think there’s a future in beef, don’t know their impact on the planet, and the history of changing food supply. IPCC Assessment Reports are telling us we need to change this fast, or we will be the ones that go extinct. There is no sustainable beef, pork, and chicken farming anymore.
I only eat generational Caymanian cow. None of that expat stuff for me.
Hard to understand choosing this breed. Not heat tolerant compared to Brangus, Santa Gertrudis, Sanga, etc. They are going to hate Cayman weather. May die without good shade and water.
Im a farmer and i was sweating my bullocks off i tell u
You need to preserve those bullocks for future endeavours, Mr. Elvis. Be safe. 😀
And we have to import all the feed and hay plus there are no proper grazing areas. How does this make any sense? Oh wait, it’s ok if they walk over the ironshore pastures in EE where no one sees them. Gross.
Jay must be planning to slash and burn the interior forests. This herd will need about 1000 lbs of feed and waste per day, plus water by year end. Where will that waste go, and that runoff? Morons calling this sustainable.
My daughter went vegetarian years ago. She is very healthy. I have since chosen to limit my consumption of flesh based on moral conviction.
I only eat fish these days.
These animals that we butcher are sentient with parental instincts, especially maternal. I just can’t do it any more.
Don’t get me wrong, I love steaks and all that, but I don’t want these animals to die just because I am hungry.
You are well allowed your own personal choices. Good on you for stating them.
Aren’t you late for your F45 class?
Good line in local homegrown, government endorsed cods then…
Good looking cattle.
The latest from Jay’s dumb idea machine. Jon Jon might loose his defending championship title at this rate.
beef has been linked to so many preventable diseases? why are u encouraging eating it? need more vegan in our diets…
That would be cannibalism.
quit drinking the koolade. You are welcome to eat ze bugs but I will stick to steak thanks!
bonkers beyond belief.
pouring money into a product that is unhealthy, unnecessary and environmentally detrimental to cayman.
welcome to wonderland.
Move to Netherlands. 47% of the Dutch population says they are willing to eat food products based on insect proteins
🐛🦗🪳🪲🪰
A regular peanut butter sandwich packs more protein than an inch-thick pastrami sandwich. There are no protein shortages on a plant-based diet, for those that know what they’re doing. Long term deficiencies in soluble and insoluble fibre are what most people should really focus on, along with the catalogues of least desirable health outcomes from denying our digestive design. Best of luck.
Shrimp, lobster and crab are what exactly?
The Dutch just kicked out their government over the insane climate and agriculture policies. Better check the source of your “statistics”.
You’re Indoctrinated beyond belief.
You never saw a good idea you liked, did you?
Let’s increase the local cattle production while from the other side of our mouth we’ll say we’re a sustainable country fighting climate change!
Why all the 👎 This post is accurate. Panton acts like the king of environmentalists yet here is his cabinet promoting one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases. Other than his big ass boat and big ass truck of course. 😂
Yay. Can’t wait to see them on their own on wasteland, with little shelter, with little water provision and seldom checks.
The Caymanian tradition of animal neglect and abuse sure to continue.
Lets hope they don’t leave any of them locked up in a car or anything.
make sure they test the feed and the fields for dioxins
Wow! Great news and innovative thinking! Those are good looking beeves. I hope the funding for this project included several years of maintenance, ongoing health testing, vet treatment, power, feed and several folk to tend them.
Not to mention soil testing, want some arsenic with your beef?
If it is naturally occurring arsenic, then the beeves will likely be already acclimated to it.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Arsenic-affected-countries-of-the-world-with-intensity-shown-by-the-size-of-the-plots_fig1_346008548
Never going to eat local beef. Who is going to monitor the safety? YUCK, no thanks!
Because the hormone and antibiotic laced beef from our friends to the north is prime?
… not to mention recent occurences of BSE (Mad Cow Disease) in U.S. cows. Don’t forget, it often survives the cooking process.
https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-form-of-mad-cow-disease-emerges-in-the-us
only organic baby!
yet you gobble down can food daily and eat microwave food..go get a life.people been raising cattle for years
It goes without saying that the Cayman Islands does not perform or subcontract testing of meat and produce sold here let alone any locally produced foodstuffs. Heavily contaminated areas exist in all three Cayman islands which are the result of dumping of household, commercial, burned construction/demolition and storm waste. There is also not prescreening of land used for raising crops or livestock.
This is CIG. Expect costly buffonery.