Sheep Farmers

During the period before the revamping of the BAS into an umbrella group for the Commodity Associations the Sheep Farmers wew a part of the Barbados Dairy and Livestock Association. This arrangement proved unsatisfactory and the sheep farmers broke away to form the Barbados Sheep Farmers Association (BSFA). There was, for a short time, a subsidiary group of the BSFA, called the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep Breeders Society and they dealt with the registration of pure Blackbelly Sheep and the preparation of our first Breed Standard.

A cess of 10% was made on the export price and was the main source of revenue for the BSFA over a period if some 20 years. However the Ministry cancelled the export agreement with the BSFA in the late 1990s and allowed free export. This resulted in poor quality sheep being exported and a drop in foreign exchangeearned from exports as importers were able to negotiate lower prices due to competition among farmers. This policy also resulted in a serious decline in the revenue for the BSFA.

It has recently been agreed with the Minister of Agriculture that we should revert to the original export agreement but it is recommended that the price to be asked should be significantly increased.

In 1992 the idea of setting up a Feedlot to provide a guaranteed market at a guaranteed price for the farmers lambs was suggested and an offer was made by the IADB to fund the idea. The feedlot was designed to have a throughput of 3000 lambs out of the 15,000 born annually would be easily obtained and the market for feedlot carcasses was determined to be about 12,000 lambs per year. It was assumed that this would only satisfy 25% of the demand for quality local lamb.

The BAMC was encouraged to setup a pilot project Feedlot at Edgecumbe with a capacity of 400 lambs. This operated for four years and showed that, provided the population of 100 lambs could be obtained to spread the overheads, the venture was economically and technically feasible. We learned a lot from the experience at Edgecumbe in terms of diets and control of health problems.

The project document for the IADB Funding took some eight years to negotiate and the Edgecumbe Feedlot was closed before all of the capital necessary was raised. A private company was formed with the BSFA having the majority of the shares.

It was at this point in time that it became necessary  to incorporate as a not - for -profit company, named the Barbados Sheep Farmers Inc. in order to receive the funding from the IADB and the Peter Moores Trust Fund. The Company was called Cousin Hill Farms Ltd. and it purchased the stock and equipment at Edgecumbe in recognition of the work done by BAMC.

What is a Sheep Feedlot?

A feedlot is a confined housing area where lambs are fed a good quality diet formulated to give high growth rates in the minimum amount of time. It creates a market for weaned lambs and allows farmers to specialize in the breeding and rearing of lambs.