Fifty-three-year-old Huntley McGregor is a dejected farmer.

He believes that praedial thieves have robbed him of the opportunity to be named the champion cattle farmer at the annual staging of the Hague Agricultural and Livestock Show for three consecutive years.

Mc Gregor, who has his farm at Top Hill, Trelawny, laments that over the past three years, thieves have made off with his six goats and five cattle, including a two- year-old bull. The highly valued bull, he said, tipped the scales at over 1,000 pounds in 2011, a few months before it was stolen.

“They stole my prized bull three years now. I had other young ones that were coming up and they moved them as well,” lamented McGregor during an interview with the Jamaica Observer at last week’s staging of the annual Hague Agricultural and Livestock Show.

The distressed farmer, who said he has been attending the Hague show every Ash Wednesday since 1974, expressed confidence that had it not been for the robbers, he would have triumphed over his friend Carlton Smith, who was declared as the champion cattle farmer for the fifth consecutive year, last week.

“I would be a champion farmer because Carlton wouldn’t have anything to match my Jamaica Red Poll,” rued McGregor, who has been a farmer for almost four decades.

Smith later told the Observer West that he did not have “any competition,” this year.

“The only competition I would have would be from Huntley, but his animals were all stolen,” said Smith.

Mc Gregor is just one of thousands of farmers islandwide who have been negatively impacted by praedial larceny.

It is estimated that farmers lose roughly $6 billion worth of crops and animals annually to praedial thieves.

Meanwhile, North Trelawny Member of Parliament Patrick Atkinson, in his remarks at the officially opening of the Hague show, advocated for persons found guilty of purchasing stolen goods to be sent to prison.

“We must really focus not just on those who steal, but those who purchase those stolen goods from these thieves. And the penalty for receiving stolen farm goods should be so severe that whether they own supermarkets, butcher shops, or food processing plants, wherever they are, they should go to prison for a long time, mandatory,” said Atkinson, who is also the attorney general.