Farmer Jean-Marc Cozier is hoping he will be able to further develop goat farming.
However, he said more incentives from Government would be needed to get an efficient breeding programme going.
Cozier, who operates Market Hill Farms with family, shared his vision yesterday on the final day of Agrofest 2025 at Queen’s Park, The City.
“We imported some goats over the last three years from the United States. It was something we wanted to do for a long time, but because of different health requirements and transport, we were unable to. The transportation cost is still restrictive, and it’s very, very high. However, we bit the bullet.
“Our whole plan is to get about 100 does to produce for meat purposes. And then the bucks, we’re looking to help other local farmers by utilising those bucks to change up their genetic pool so they can then create a better quality goat meat as well,” Cozier told the DAILY NATION.
He said the breeds were the South African Boer goat and the Kalahari Red, which were predominantly for meat purposes. He maintained that the animals produced quality meat.
“Goat meat is very good because it’s lower in cholesterol, less in fats and it’s very healthy for people. If you look at Africa and a lot of the other countries around the world right now, everybody’s heading in the direction of goat meat. So that’s what we’re looking to recreate here.”
The farmer said that while Government provided some incentives, more would be needed to enhance production.
“The Government has an incentive programme going where they give us back a rebate for a certain amount of money for each animal we bring in. However, these goats are not cheap by any means, but we’ve got to start somewhere.
“So we’re hoping to get some more incentives from the Government along the way and maybe get a proper breeding programme going.”
Cozier said such a programme would be useful for other meats such as the Black Belly sheep.
“The direction the farmers in the US have gone is embryos and semen. If you have good-yielding goats, you can reproduce the likenesses of these goats in a faster capacity than just having the traditional method of a goat giving young.
“Everybody’s trying to push it by this Black Belly sheep. But the reality of the matter is that sheep also need to go
in the direction of embryo transfer as well if you want to get her numbers up, to get her best gene pool and to recreate that gene pool all the time. Unless we do that, just traditional breeding, we will never get the numbers that we want,” he added.
He spoke as some of his family and staff members groomed some of the goats they had on display.
Yesterday afternoon, many families capitalised on the sunny conditions and visited the hundreds of stalls and vendors who displayed their agricultural products and services.
Some children were drawn to the attractions, games and to some of the heavy-duty farming equipment on display.
There was also a massive showing of products from Guyana and Venezuela.
Al McClean, of Big Al’s Pet Supplies, had rabbits, birds and ducklings which also attracted a lot of attention. He said he loved being an exhibitor at Agrofest each year.
A few metres away, several people were also buying plants for their homes which exhibitor Marcia Gooding, of Delmar’s Selection, said she was pleased to see. She said plants such as desert roses and succulents continued to attract attention.
“I love meeting customers and sharing information about the plants. My plants are different to others and they are low-maintenance and easy to take care of,” she said.
Patron Hazel McCollin said she was pleased with the offerings.
(TG)
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