Letter of the Day | Do not give up on grass research
Published:Saturday | January 1, 2022 | 12:06 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
T he Gleaner’s editorial, ‘Agriculture in the age of climate change’, (December 10) raised some worrying conclusions about the history and state of Jamaica’s cattle breeding and research in genetics. However, space only permits responding to two areas at this time.
First, in regards to the history of research “in cattle breeding and genetics”, it should be noted that it did not end / “retreated with the retirement of researchers like the renowned Dr Thomas Lecky” in the ‘60s. The editorial did not highlight that Dr Lecky’s successors included the late Dr Keith Roach and the current operator of a farm in St Elizabeth, Dr Karl Wellington, an able and well-qualified animal geneticist who continued with research until the closure of both the Grove Place Research Station and, later, Alcan Kirkvine Works in the parish of Manchester.
The editorial also includes the following comment by Dr Derrick Deslandes: “Grazing is a waste of time in many respects ... . You are focused on grazing animals and every pasture you pass, the cows ... (are) under shade and not eating because the sun is hot. Our pastures are not the best, so when the cows are grazing, the energy that they should be using to make milk, they are instead using it to find shade ... . Whether you use a hybrid model or a zero-grazing model, you have to move in that direction.”
There is a lot to unpack in this statement. Dr Dinsdale McLeod, who was among the world’s top three Jamaican grass scientists, and once worked at the Grove Place Research Station, described the above statements as follows: “I am saddened by the statements and suggestions made like seeing someone heading towards a precipice.”
Dr McLeod explained that ruminants (animals which chew the cud) would rest and regurgitate a bolus of incompletely chewed feed. In order for the microbes to digest fibre rapidly and efficiently, it must be in small pieces. So cattle re-chew their food several times. It is therefore ridiculous to think they are “not eating because of the hot sun”.
Since grass is the main source of feed for ruminants, he recommends, for efficient land use, that “grass can be grown on land that is unsuitable to grow crops to produce food that can be directly consumed by humans”.
According to Dr McLeod, “Maximum individual animal production is controlled by genetic potential but, in practice, it is generally the quality of feed consumed that determines the level of animal production (meat and milk) obtained.”
Hence, “there is no difference in the fundamental biology of an animal raised in the outdoor pastoral or grazing system and one reared in the indoor system”. According to Dr McLeod, “What happens here is that we are looking at the quantitative outputs of outdoor as against the indoor system.”
I close by asking what has either the Ministry of Agriculture or the College of Agriculture, Science and Education done in furthering research on the use of grass that once made Jamaica a leader among nations like New Zealand?
DUDLEY MCLEAN II
Mandeville, Manchester