Cattle importation recommended to improve local beef, herd quality
Published:Thursday | August 10, 2023 | 10:28 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
GUEST JUDGE at the cattle competitions at Denbigh 2023, Casey Jentz, has recommended artificial insemination and the importation of bulls for breeding purposes among ways in which farmers can improve the quality of local beef herds.
This follows his recent one-week visit to Jamaica, which included tours of the Government-owned Minard Estate in Brown’s Town, St Ann, and the Montpelier Agriculture Research Station in St James, another State-own entity.
‘The cattle were nice, they fit the environment,” he told The Gleaner on the final day of the Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show in May Pen, Clarendon. “I think from a consistency standpoint they are not quite there from what we see in the United States. You can bring that higher quality consistency to your herds, whether it’s through artificial insemination of your cows and importing semen or importing some bulls that can really go out and help change the herds and push the production.
“One of the big differences is in the United States we push the envelope a little faster, especially in the turnover of our genetics. We tend to use bulls and breed our females at a lot younger (stage) and it turns over that generational interval and we can make a lot faster progress than what I have seen in your production systems here in Jamaica,” Jentz explained.
“So working with some of the Jamaica farms and the government farms to really try that move, that genetic interval, a little faster, and once those bulls breed at 18 months and not three years of age, I think you’ll see the progress come a lot faster.”
Jentz is employed as regional manager of Territory Four covering Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin of the American Angus Association in the United States, which has an estimated 80 per cent of that country’s beef market.
Sharing reasons for their success, he said: “The cows and the bulls, they do everything farmers want them to do then they do everything the public wants them to taste like. They’ve really pushed the envelope on high-quality beef and it’s really dominated the market, especially over the last 30 years.”
At Denbigh, Jentz met with renowned livestock geneticist and cattle breeder, Dr Karl Wellington, and was clearly impressed.
“He was really knowledgeable,” Jentz said. “He was a joy to talk with.”