Integrated Dairy Management for the Caribbean

Dairy production in the eastern Caribbean is severely limited by environment, animal production units, lack of knowledge and marketing systems. The U.S. Virgin Islands import 50% of the fluid milk requirements and all of the milk product requirements, resulting in economic hardship. Low production and infertility as identified by DH1A records account for the low milk yield, (3,650-7,848 lbs/cow/year in 1981). An evaluation made in 1982 revealed problems of nutritional deficiency, leptospirosis and infertility. Improvements in milk production and reproduction were seen as a result of changes in management and immunization recommendations (413,002 lbs of milk increase, 1.1 month decrease in calving interval in 1983). These improvements resulted in 1148,875 increase in gross revenue. A major Caribbean dairy management research study is being developed using the St. Croix dairy cooperative herds as a model to study the problems of milk production in the Caribbean. The major components of this study are nutrition, genetic improvement, herd health programs, forage development, and water conservation.