DR. THE HON. THOMAS P. LECKY, PH.D., O.M., O. J., O.B.E.
(1904 – 1994)
Pioneer Jamaican Scientist
The Father of the Jamaican Dairy Industry.
The first Jamaican to receive a Ph.D. in agriculture, his work would revolutionize the Jamaican dairy industry and improve the lives of countless small farmers.
He was a Jamaican scientist who created the historical development of several new breeds of cattle.On June 25, 1952, Lecky unveiled to the world the Jamaica Hope, the first cattle breed developed in the Western hemisphere, watched by scientists from all over the world. Lecky is known as one of Jamaica’s earliest environmentalists, and a strong advocate for the conservation of hillsides. His research in cattle breeding led to the development of three breeds suited to the tropical climate: Jamaica Hope, Jamaica Red, and Jamaica Black. Jamaica Hope was the first breed of cattle indigenous to Jamaica. He is remembered as the Father of the Jamaican Dairy Industry.
Lecky was born on 31 December 1904, the twelfth of 13 children, and raised on a small farm in Swift River, in the Blue Mountains region in Portland Parish in the island of Jamaica.[1][2] Lecky received a scholarship to attend the Jamaica School of Agriculture at Hope Farm in Saint Andrew Parish. As a child, Lecky saw his father lose his banana crop as a result of hurricanes three years in a row. This inspired Lecky to research solutions to provide and improve the diet of his community and neighbors by developing the local breed of cattle for milk and beef production.
At the Jamaica School of Agriculture, the director of the government stock farm H.H. Cousins involved Lecky in testing European cattle breeds for their suitability to the Jamaican environment. Lecky went on to study agriculture and animal husbandry at McGill University and Ontario Agricultural College in Canada. At university, he focused on researching acclimatizing European breeds to Jamaica’s environment. He concluded that the answer was not an acclimatized European breed but a new breed, a completely adapted tropical breed.
On returning to Jamaica in 1935 Lecky started to research his ideas by using lines of cattle and began to select bulls for breeding from the best producing cows in Jamaica.
In 1949, Lecky gathered his documentation and traveled to the University of Edinburgh where he used this research as the basis for his doctorate. His dissertation, entitled “Genetic Improvement in Dairy Cattle in the Tropics” presented his ideas for developing a tropical dairy breed and catapulted him to international acclaim.
Lecky wrote in his autobiography, Cattle and I, that as someone with black blood, he struggled to gain acceptance in scientific circles in the Colony of Jamaica, where key positions were given to white people, such as Cousins. It was only when the British West Indian labor unrest of 1934-1939 took place, and the subsequent nationalist movement took hold in the 1940s, that he was finally appointed to a position of authority, that of breeding cattle at Hope Farm.
In 1925, after graduating, Lecky worked for the government at Hope, where he assessed the new breeds of cattle being introduced to Jamaica and tested their reaction to local conditions. Lecky learned that the cattle in Jamaica at that time were not well suited to life on hillsides where many small farmers had holdings. He believed that all small farmers should have cattle because besides producing milk, every year a young animal could be sold to help pay for school fees.
Lecky decided that what Jamaica needed was an animal that would produce enough milk for farmers as well as be light enough that they would move up and down steep hillsides. Cousins had advocated the use of cross-breeding, but when Lecky was appointed head of Hope Farm in 1942, he instead employed the practice of line breeding. He bred the Jamaica Hope, Red, and Black cattle breeds, adapted for the local climate.
By the early 1950s, Lecky saw his ideas realized and the first examples of genetically bred cattle, named Jamaica Hope, were ready. They were a combination of the British Jersey cow (small, and light feeding) with the Holstein (heavy milk producers) and the Indian Sahiwal breed (disease resistant and adapted to the tropics). The Jamaica Hope could produce up to an average of 12 litres of milk a day 3 times that produced by other cattle on the island. Lecky’s work revolutionized the Jamaican dairy industry and indeed the dairy industry around the world. Scientists from many different countries flocked to Jamaica to see what he had done. Lecky’s work impacted on the development of cattle in many tropical countries.
THE JAMAICA RED
Not satisfied with the Jamaica Hope, mainly a producer of milk, Lecky turned his attention to creating a Jamaican breed able to produce meat. He worked with cattle farmers and looked carefully at Indian cattle. He selected from amongst a few breeds of Indian cattle that had been brought into the island and created a new breed known as the Jamaica Brahman, which has since become popular also in Latin America. Farmers had noted that the imported English Red cattle, which had not proved resistant to ticks and tropical disease, when bred with the Jamaica Brahman, produced cattle of top quality beef. This breed became known as the Jamaica Red the main meat-producing cattle on the island.
THE JAMAICA BLACK
Still not satisfied, Lecky decided to focus on cattle who could live in the cooler areas of the island where other breeds were unable to thrive. He bred the black Aberdeen Angus from Scotland, well adapted to cool temperatures, with the Jamaica Brahmans to produce a small, black cattle called the Jamaica Black. Yet, even though some claim it has the best quality of beef on the island, the Jamaica Black proved to be the most difficult breed to care for. Not surprisingly, it did not prove to be as popular as its two predecessors, the Jamaica Hope and the Jamaica Red, among cattle farmers.
Dr. Lecky retired from government service in 1965 but remained available as a consultant until close to his death in 1994. Indeed he was at work at his beloved Bodles Research Station until a week before his death, having dedicated over 60 years of his life to the development of Jamaican livestock. Prior to his passing, Dr. T.P. Lecky received Jamaica’s highest civilian honor, the Order of Merit, for creating new breeds based on foreign cattle that reproduce on their own without acting like crossbreeds or hybrids. He also received the Norman Manley Award for excellence. A countryman at heart, Lecky took the greatest consolation from knowing he had helped small farmers like his parents improve their lot. He is remembered as the father of the Jamaican Dairy Industry.
Lecky also contributed to the field of agriculture in Jamaica through the numerous professional posts he held throughout his career. He served as:
Bench Chemist
Foreman at a Farm School
Farm Supervisor
Farmer
Teacher at Holmwood Technical High School
Livestock Inspector
Livestock Field Officer
Junior Agricultural Officer
Agricultural Officer
Livestock Officer (Senior and Chief)
Director of Animal Husbandry
Director of Livestock Research
Consultant
Lecky also has several publications to his credit. He published an autobiography in 1994, titled Cattle and I. He also wrote several papers that have been delivered at international conferences. Lecky was also the recipient of several honors and awards, these being:
1959 – Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E) “for meritorious and devoted service to agriculture”
1970 – First recipient of the Norman Manley Award for Excellence
1971 – Doctor of Science (Honoris causa), University of the West Indies
1978 – Order of Merit, Government of Jamaica “for work of national and international importance”
1987 – The Mutual Security Foundation Outstanding Achievement Award
1989 – Fellow of the Jamaican Society for Agricultural Sciences
1992 – Induction into the Professional Societies Association in Jamaica
Dr. Lecky still remains a role model for many Jamaican scientists. He died in 1994 at the age of 90.
Source
B/N (Biographical Notes) file – National Library of Jamaica– Lecky, Thomas Phillip (Dr.)
Lecky, T. P. Cattle and I. Kingston: Ian Randle, 1996.