Integrated Dairy Management for the Caribbean Charles D. Gibson Department of Large Animal Clinic Sciences Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 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 DHIA records ac- count for the low milk yield, (3,650-7,848 Ibs/cow/year in 1981). An evaluation made in 1982 revealed problems of nutritional deficiency, leptospirosis and infertility. Im- provements in milk production and reproduction were seen as a result of changes in management and immunization recom- Harold Hupp College of the Virgin Islands St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands mendations (413,002 Ibs of milk increase, 1.1 month decrease in calving interval in 1983). These improvements resulted in $148,875 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. Keywords: Dairy, herd health, reproduction, energy, phosphorus. The agricultural industry on St. Croix represents the eastern Caribbean region in environment, forage development, and topography and is quite advanced in dairy technology as noted by a modern processing plant and computer production and health records in the form of Dairy Herd Improvement (DHIA) and Food Animal Health Records (FAHRMX). The dairy producers in St. Croix are beset by the same problem of low production seen in the rest of the Caribbean (Craig, 1983). The causes for this deficit are multiple and additive in nature, resulting in very low milk production and very inefficient reproduction. Cattle populations of the eastern Caribbean suffer from disease and parasite prob- lems common to all tropical areas and require well-defined health programs (IICA/IBA, 1981). In addition, genetic improvement is lacking becasue artificial insemination has not been used to any extent in this region (Everson et al., 1982). The result of disease problems, genetic deficiency, and lack of adequate nutrition is a dairy industry unable to provide fluid milk and milk products adequate to the needs of the population. The problems of low milk production and infertility in the dairy herds of St. Croix resulting in milk production levels be- tween 3,650 lbs and 7,848 Ibs/cow/year prompted Dr. Hupp of the College of the Virgin Islands to request assistance from Michigan State University in 1982. Problems of infertility and nutritional deficiency were revealed by clinical and laboratory findings. As a result of these findings, some changes were made in disease control, breeding practices, and nutrition. This resulted in an increase in milk production of 770 lbs of milk/cow/year average and improved reproduction in the form of a reduction in the calving interval of 30 days in 1983. This im- provement in dairy production, although inadequate to resolve the deficit, demonstrated the urgent need for a controlled, well organized, comprehensive study of the problems of dairy produc- tion in the Caribbean. A five-year research proposal has been prepared by Dr. Charles Gibson of Michigan State University and Dr. Harold Hupp of the College of the Virgin Islands entitled "Integrated Dairy Manage- ment for the Caribbean." This study is designed to evaluate the roles and interactions of nutrition, genetics, disease control, forage development and water management on improvement of dairy production in the Caribbean. VOL. XX-PROCEEDINGS of the CARIBBEAN FOOD CROPS SOCIETY MATERIALS AND METHODS 1982 situation: The five dairy herds providing milk to the St. Croix Dairy Pro- ducts Inc. processing plant contained the approximately 600 cows involved in this study. The cows involved are primarily holstein with some jersey and a few one-half senepol holstein animals in- volved in the milking strings. The breeding program consisted of using holstein bulls to breed the holstein cows and jersey bulls for the jersey cows in a pasture mating situation. The senepol bulls were used as backup cleanup bulls when the problem of infertility became acute. Periodic veterinary examinations were performed to verify pregnancy and diagnose problem animals. Disease control consisted of tick control by periodic dipping of cows with organophosphates and sporadic vaccination with infec- tious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), 5-way leptospira, and clostridial vaccines. The nutrition program consisted of a complete pelleted feed and pasture with some fresh chopped maize forage. The cows were fed 25 Ibs of the complete pellet while they were being milked in the parlor. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Two major problem areas were revealed by the indepth evalua- tion in 1983. These were nutritional deficiency and leptospirosis. The nutritional problems were as follows. Energy deficiency was one of the major problem areas as noted by laboratory analysis (Table 1). The energy requirement would be met for 50 lbs of milk provided the cow was allowed to eat 25 lbs of pellet. It was questionable that this was happening since the only exposure to the pellet was during the milking process in the parlor. The recommendation was made to allow access to pelleted feed addi- tional periods of time to allow greater intake by the cows produc- ing 50 lbs or more of milk. It was further advised to feed addi- tional pellets at the rate of 5 lbs of pellet/10 lbs of milk over 50 lbs of milk produced to provide energy necessary to maintain a positive energy balance. A positive energy balance has been shown to be essential to maintain high milk production (Hillman et al., 1975). It has been shown that it is almost impossible to maintain a positive energy intake in cows at peak lactation using 115