GOATS were introduced to Jamaica by the Spanish and Portuguese in the 16th century and were referenced in biblical literature in Hebrews and Leviticus as good for meat, milk, leather and for sacrifice — similar to sheep but exhibit stubbornness, rebellion and disobedience, unlike the sheep.

Goats roamed wildly for centuries until the last 100 years, when greater emphasis was placed on their domestication for backyard animal farming. This fits well in the category of the small land owners and the landless farmers, while large land owners concentrate on cattle.

These thousands of informal goats and sheep farmers feed their stock on roadside fodders and open lots but with rapid increase in the country’s motor vehicle inventory and wide occupation of unused lots, goat farmers became more formal and organised by creating their separate holdings including wooden pens and fenced pastures.

As early as the 1960s, the Government began an improvement programme for sheep and goats and created a unit at Bodles Research Station and later on, the small ruminant facility was developed at Hounslow in St Elizabeth. These two research stations were design to rear animals from native stock and imported breeds like the Boer and Nubian, etc. The main objectives were to develop a Jamaican breed from the imported and local stock to achieve larger meat goats and sheep, and for more prolific dairy animals with the resilience of the native stock and to boost local meats for consumption.

These objectives were not met because the Government researchers did not give the same level of emphasis on small ruminants as was placed on cattle, including the work done by TP Lecky to create four cattle breeds adopted to Jamaican conditions. Until now, none of the small ruminant researchers has rivalled the work of Lecky with world recognised cattle genetic research.

It is of importance that Government or the universities begin a breeding programme to ascertain the best crosses with different goat breeds and sheep to find the most adaptable animals for commercial production.

In 1997, the Goat Breeders’ Society came into operation and further, the name was changed to Small Ruminant Association of Jamaica (SRAJ), with the objectives to improve and expand goats and sheep farming and to a lesser extent rabbit rearing, to drive research in breeding, nutrition, farm modernization, marketing and to mitigate praedial larceny of goats etc.

These expected outcomes are mostly unfulfilled but the SRAJ must be credited for hosting extremely well organised training seminars, high quality animals displayed at various agricultural exhibitions and coordinating on-farm activities in breeding, nutrition programmes and farm design to discourage animal theft and to optimize out in meat and milk.

The Association has not established the goats and sheep population currently in Jamaica and the required amount of animals to suffice the consumption needs of the country.

Local production of mutton (sheep) and chevron (goat) account for only 15 per cent of consumption and a whopping 85 per cent is from imported sources. This proved that there is a big market gap to be satisfied from local production that the SRAJ need better collaboration amoung government agencies,research organizations and SRAJ members to mirror the nexus that existed between Cattle Breeders Society and government facilities like Minard Cattle Farm and Bodles Research Station.

The Minard Beef Cattle show staged annually in November is a result of relationships between Cattle Breeders Society and the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Mining to promote the consumption of locally produced beef.

SRAJ need to use a central facility like Bodles, Denbigh or Hauge to host a Small Ruminant Association festival with all goats and sheep products on display including an auction for animals.

Goat meat is a specialty and is very expensive fetching $2,500 per pound and always in short supplies, which could explain the high level of praedial larceny coupled with losses from stray dogs and other mitigating factors. These two major risks must be tackled by strong praedial larceny legislation and technologies in camera, radiar systems, electric fencing ect.

Goat meat was once a reasonable and affordable option for lower and middle income earners but because of unavailability of goats the meat price is prohibitive which has dampened the market for the masses and curtailed the consumption in hotels and restaurants.

These establishments have opted to use substandard imported sheep meat (mutton) from countries like New Zealand as substitute for expensive local goat meat (chevron). Prime mutton from New Zealand is marketed to Arab countries at much higher prices than the lower value carcasses that come to the Caribbean. Due to the lax import government policies, Mears that would otherwise rejected like old sheep carcasses and chicken back are forced on the consumers.

This situation is of grave concern for the future of goat farming in Jamaica if imported mutton continues to limit the consumption of local goat meat in major industries like Tourism, entertainmen and the distributive trade.

Goat farmers expressed their desire for government to conduct a small ruminant survey in concert with SRAJ, which would form the basis to reform this subsector and make it more competitive. Also greater lobbying is needed for land availability which could drive local feed development (hay, soilage and forrage), easing the pressure on foreign exchange requirements to purchase imported feed.

The time is right for financial institutions, government and small ruminant farmers to find common grounds and develop this aspect of agriculture for the benefit of all.

The new frontier could engage mined out bauxite lands that have been reclaimed suitable enough for grass cultivation to rear small ruminants, especially since the water requirements for goats and sheep are less than is required crops and cattle. Because, these livestock types are adoptive to arid conditions and over 10,000 acres of reclaimed bauxite land lie idle.