Barbados bets on British dairy cow semen to beef up herds

Thwarted in the attempt to import cattle to boost an ailing dairy industry, the government is turning to a British cow breeding firm to reintroduce a national artificial insemination programme.

The Ministry of Agriculture plans to offer farmers discounted sex-selected semen within three months, allowing them to produce more female calves. Barney Callender, head of the ministry’s Animal Nutrition Unit, told Barbados TODAY: “We are reintroducing sex semen to the farmers, which is a semen that will give them desired offspring of females. Farmers for a long time have been asking for it so there is a demand for it.”

Industry figures and agriculture ministry officials see the reintroduction of the artificial insemination programme as a critical step in improving herds by offering a cost-effective alternative to relying on imports, currently blocked by the rise of bird flu among cattle in the United States.

Callender explained that farmers have been “complaining that they were getting too many bulls as a result of our present AI programme. Bulls on a dairy farm are not ideal. The farmers want heifers to replenish their breeding herds and milk production cattle.”

The programme comes as a plan to import pregnant climate-resilient heifers from the United States was recently halted due to an outbreak of bird flu. Record high temperatures in recent years have severely affected milk production, with cows experiencing heat stress and operating in “survival mode”, prompting a drive to multiply herds.

Under the new scheme, farmers will be able to buy cow sperm for around $20, compared to the $60 or more it currently costs to import a single straw of sex-selected semen. The ministry said the insemination service will be provided free of charge.

Callender emphasised the importance of the programme: “This will help farmers to build out the stock on their farms for replacement heifers so there would be no need for importation if you have quality genetics. If you have quality animals, you don’t have to focus on quantity.”

As part of the initiative, Cogent, the British breeding company, has sent specialist Tom Seller to train students from the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology and livestock attendants from the ministry. On Friday, Seller conducted a demonstration workshop at the Morgan Lewis Dairy Farm in St Andrew.

The ministry also views the training as a succession planning strategy to increase the number of qualified insemination technicians on the island. Currently, there are only a few private technicians and one attached to the ministry.

Stirling Bannister, farm manager and co-owner of Morgan Lewis dairy farm, welcomed the programme’s return.

“This programme brought the industry to its heyday in the 90s and early 2000s when there were about 30 farmers, and this is the way for us to go,” he said.

Bannister added that he prefers using artificial insemination over importing heifers: “I already have the genetics I want on the farm. My goal right now is to provide comfort for them (erecting more shaded areas) so they can live long productive happy lives.”

Seller said he was honoured to be in Barbados imparting knowledge to young people, adding that this was his second time instructing a training programme in the Caribbean.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb