Microchips won’t rein in farm thieves – Wellington

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - Livestock geneticist and veteran cattle breeder, Dr Karl Wellington has expressed reservations about the use of microchips to address the wide-scale theft of farm animals, as is being mooted by the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) and Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
"I wouldn't jump at it," he told The Gleaner Tuesday at the Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show, in between collecting his awards for topping the cattle exhibition.
The Jamaica Red Poll and Jamaica Brahman cattle Wellington exhibited took 12 first prizes and four second places, in the process earning him the Champion Cattle Exhibitor Trophy. Louise Mystery, a four-year- and four-month-old Jamaica Red Poll, weighing 2,010 pounds, emerged as champion in his class as well overall supreme champion bull.