Farmers and agricultural experts are warning that worsening heat and drought conditions are already affecting milk production and could threaten the long-term sustainability of Barbados’ dairy industry if climate adaptation measures are not urgently implemented.
As Barbados prepares to transition from the dry season into the hurricane season in the coming days, dairy farmers are seeking guidance on how to better protect livestock and maintain milk yields amid rising temperatures and worsening drought conditions.
The concerns were raised during Pine Hill Dairy’s Dairy Farmers Engagement Forum on Thursday at Radisson Aquatica, where farmers, climate officials and agricultural experts discussed the challenges facing the sector and possible solutions.
Julia Holder, Dairy Farm Development Manager with Pine Hill Dairy, said farmers were grappling with heat stress, water shortages and declining production.
“I’m talking about looking at some things that we really need to change on the farms, like shade houses or shade areas. We’re looking at cooling systems for the cows dealing with heat stress and a lot of the smaller farmers wouldn’t have a cooling system, and you know we’re dependent on wind and the wind is already hot and there’s so much going on,” Holder said.
Senior Agricultural Assistant with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security, Arlie Connolly revealed that rebates are already available for environmental control systems.
Additionally, Connolly said the ministry was open to expanding incentives to support climate-smart farming initiatives.
“There is a rebate for environmental control systems for both poultry and livestock up to $25,000. So you can make use of that within the dairy industry in terms of environmental control systems that help to keep the pens cool,” he disclosed.
“There are rebates for the milking parlour and dairy housing, but climate smart, I have no problem moving towards climate smart rebates.”
Connolly also urged hay producers and livestock farmers to prepare early based on climate forecasts.
“If we’re going to be having this kind of weather, the persons that have pastures that can produce hay, they need to do what is necessary. Make sure you fertilise your grass as early as possible so you get the maximum amount of production, so when the dry time comes you will have hay. Because if you don’t have enough hay for your cows, then you’ve got problems,” he noted.
Climate Officer with the Barbados Meteorological Services (BMS), Danielle Nurse, stressed the importance of farmers using climate information and forecasts to better prepare for changing weather conditions.
She explained that the Barbados Climate Outlook newsletter remains the BMS’ main platform for sharing climate information with the public and agricultural stakeholders.
“We give a range of rainfall amounts; whether it’s going to be above or below normal for the next three to six months, the probability that you’re going to have above normal temperatures, and that also includes the nighttime temperature because heat stress is stressful when you do not have the nighttime temperatures cool enough for even us as humans to recover, so, I can only imagine for animals.
“We also look at the potential for drought outlooks, and then we look at the climatic factors that are coming in the near future that could affect that,” Nurse said.
She warned that how Barbados adapts to climate change over the next decade could determine the future viability of the dairy industry.
“How we adapt to the changing climate depends on the partnerships we build today because yes, we provide rainfall outlooks, drought outlooks, temperature outlooks, but you have to then communicate with us to say this is useful or not, this is helping us or not. This is what we need from you, and then we come back to the table and we try to develop something that is useful for you,” Nurse said.
She also pointed to the possibility of developing climate-smart rebate systems through collaboration between government agencies, farmers and technical experts.
“If we say we want to propose a rebate for climate-smart building and what we have isn’t good, can you give us information on winds? Can you give us information on humidity? Then we can partner, I don’t know with an architect, then it would be us, the farmers, the architect, the Ministry of Agriculture. We sit down at a table, and we say, ‘Ok, this is the best way it goes, this is what we can do’ and then we move forward, and you have a rebate for climate-smart building in that form,” Nurse further explained.
Nurse pointed to the fact that warmer-than-normal temperatures associated with El Niño conditions are already affecting the Eastern Caribbean.
“The importance of that is that it changes the circulation patterns across the tropical area, and that impact on the west, on the eastern Caribbean is more heat and less rainfall. Already for the year, we are to date, just below average rainfall, but we’ve had a lot of dry periods. We’ve had about, before this past weekend, about six weeks of not much rainfall.
“We are in an agricultural drought. In our newsletter, we actually did have an agricultural drought warning and a hydrological drought watch based on our last publication,” Nurse said.
Nurse cautioned that even as the wet season approaches, prolonged dry spells and high temperatures are still expected.
She also warned that conditions next year could become even more difficult if the island experiences a below-normal wet season.
“Going into next year, depending on how the wet season plays out, if we have a below normal wet season, the beginning of the dry season next year may be tougher as well when we look at the rainfall patterns,” Nurse said.
(LG)
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