{"id":82207,"date":"2026-02-15T17:53:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T23:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/?p=82207"},"modified":"2026-02-15T17:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T23:53:20","slug":"learning-how-to-care-for-cows-and-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/learning-how-to-care-for-cows-and-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning How to Care for Cows and the Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, the University of Belize Central Farm Campus buzzed with energy as Belize\u2019s cattle farmers and extension officers gathered for a very special training: learning how to make livestock farming not just productive, but also kind to the planet.<\/p>\n

Belarmino Esquivel, Principal Agriculture Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, said it best: “I think this is a very important extension strategy\u2026 we need to move and transform the cultural sector into one that is no longer traditional but more productive, competitive, sustainable, and\u2026 more resilient. Very importantly, with a regenerative focus, meaning that we want to\u2026 take care of our soil, we need to take care of water management practices\u2026 This is a refresher course\u2026 farms are already in place in some districts and are being used to train our cattle farmers in the area of regenerative agriculture.”<\/p>\n

In simple terms, the idea is to help farmers raise cattle in a way that\u2019s healthy for the land, water, and animals, so future generations can keep enjoying farming in Belize.<\/p>\n

Luciano Chi, Regenerative Agriculture Specialist for The Nature Conservancy, explained that this isn\u2019t a one-group effort. “The extension strategy basically is a collaboration effort between different\u2026 stakeholders within the livestock sector in Belize, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Belize Livestock Producer Association, the University of Belize, Belize Maya Forest, and The Nature Conservancy\u2026 Because we want to continue\u2026 doing the transition towards a more sustainable regenerative livestock system in Belize.”<\/p>\n

Over six months, 25 extension officers learned everything from rotational grazing to using trees in pastures, improving animal nutrition, and the full concept of regenerative agriculture. “Phase one has to do with the capacity building of the extension officers\u2026 we had a guest speaker, Dr Martin Battaglia, who discussed the entire concept of regenerative agriculture and the different principles that can be implemented by farmers,” Chi added.<\/p>\n

\"Learning

Learning How to Care for Cows and the Planet<\/p><\/div>\n

Now comes the fun part: putting all that knowledge to work. The second phase of the programme sends extension officers out to five model farms and 50 satellite farms, where they\u2019ll train farmers on all these greener, smarter practices. As Chi explained, “These extension officers\u2026 go and train the livestock farmers\u2026 towards that transition.”<\/p>\n

The programme also gave participating organisations practical tools to make the transition safer and more effective. Daniel Juan, a livestock lecturer at the University of Belize, said, “There were two sets of kits that were handed over. The first kit was primarily for animal health purposes. All of our participants who successfully completed the training deal on a regular basis with livestock, whether it’s through their extension service or the BLPA services that are provided to the farmers. One of the things that we want to do\u2026 safeguard as much as possible the wellbeing of the animals, of course, but in particular the wellbeing and health of the people who are handling these animals\u2026 So the kit includes things like gloves, masks, rubbing alcohol and an array of items that are used on farms with livestock\u2026 But they will also ensure that the farmers are safe, the personnel are safe, and the animals are handled properly, uh, with care\u2026 When they’re performing the husbandry practices on these farms\u2026 we feel that it’s very important that the people working with animals have the right tools, the right equipment, and the right knowledge and skills so that they can impart the new knowledge to move the industry forward.”<\/p>\n

The second kit was designed to help extension officers demonstrate sustainable farm practices directly to farmers. “Using one of those tools is a self-pastoral system\u2026 A big component of the self-pastoral system is being able to rotate your cattle\u2026 One aspect of allowing or facilitating that rotational grazing is the use of electric fencing\u2026 In the kits, it is set up for the technicians to be able to demonstrate, again, keeping safety in mind\u2026 So there are leather gloves for safety, earth rods, wires, poly wire\u2026 all the tools and equipment that will allow the technicians to demonstrate with safety to the farmers how to install and operate an electric fence.”<\/p>\n

\"Learning

Learning How to Care for Cows and the Planet<\/p><\/div>\n

Juan stressed that soil health is just as important as the animals. “We have other tools such as a soil auger. Because soil health is a super important component of that transition mechanism\u2026 One of the things that we are going to strongly encourage farmers to do is take soil samples and have these analysed. The technicians will then be able to assist the farmers in interpreting that soil analysis so that they can then plot a way forward of how to go about amending their soils\u2026 Hopefully one of those amendments will include things like using cover crops, using legumes that are native to the areas and so on\u2026 So it’s a very comprehensive set of tools and equipment that are in the kits to, again, promote the industry for the long term and to safeguard the individuals working with the industry.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, the University of Belize Central Farm Campus buzzed with energy as Belize\u2019s cattle farmers and extension officers gathered for a very special training: learning how to make livestock farming not just productive, but also kind to the planet. Belarmino Esquivel, Principal Agriculture Officer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":82216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[493,484,444,475],"tags":[10767],"class_list":["post-82207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-breaking-news","category-latest-news","category-news","tag-learning-how-to-care-for-cows-and-the-planet"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82218,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82207\/revisions\/82218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}