Handling Cattle and Making Connections in Jamaica

Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Dave Roberts agreed to participate in a cattle handling training assignment with Minard Estates Farm staff in 2019. Having completed several assignments in the tropics and with a considerable amount of experience in tropical livestock production, he was a great fit for the Minard team.  

Most of the training was conducted through physical demonstrations in the farms so the workers could see the reactions of the cattle after certain techniques were done. Dave did several demonstrations using different herds which had differing temperaments. For example, Jamaican Red and Black cows were docile while Brahman were more excitable. 

Through these demonstrations, he covered topics like herd handling and sorting, cutting cattle out of a herd, and animal restrains using ropes and chutes. During his assignment, Dave also created a Minard Estate manual for proper cattle handling techniques and carried out presentations on related subjects like body condition score, rumen fill, and livestock nutrition.

Dave also gave presentations to other groups and visited additional farms to provide training on cattle handling and livestock husbandry. He taught several high school female students to identify the various parts of cattle, and talked about his experience volunteering with the F2F Program at the Saint Ann Beekeepers Association.

Dave also visited the Orange Valley Farm, which raises thoroughbred horses for the race industry and a commercial cattle herd. He discussed the horse component of the farm and some of the similarities as well as the differences between raising horses in the tropics and temperate regions. Later he looked over their cattle herd and discussed the cattle handling techniques that he was sharing at the Minard Farm. He finished the visit by viewing their haymaking machinery and discussed producing quality hay. 

Finally, Dave visited a veterinarian and other livestock producers, where he discussed the diseases present and climate effects on the stock. He concluded his assignment by saying: “These were excellent networking opportunities to show the benefits of the Farmer-to-Farmer Program. These discussions, as well as further communication through future emails, make the assignment very rewarding for me.”