Thomas Lecky is known as one of Jamaica's earliest environmentalists, and a strong advocate for conservation of hillsides.
19 Facts About Thomas Lecky
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Thomas Lecky is remembered as the Father of the Jamaican Dairy Industry.
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Thomas 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.
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Thomas Lecky received a scholarship to attend the Jamaica School of Agriculture at Hope Farm in Saint Andrew Parish.
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Thomas Lecky went on to study agriculture and animal husbandry at McGill University and Ontario Agricultural College in Canada.
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Thomas Lecky concluded that the answer was not an acclimatized European breed but a new breed, a completely adapted tropical breed.
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On returning to Jamaica in 1935 Thomas 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.
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In 1949, Thomas Lecky gathered his documentation and travelled to the University of Edinburgh where he used this research as the basis for his doctorate.
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Thomas Lecky's 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.
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Thomas 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.
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In 1925, after graduating, Thomas 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.
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Thomas Lecky learned that the cattle in Jamaica at that time were not well suited to life on hillsides where many small farmers had holdings.
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Thomas Lecky 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.
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Thomas 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.
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Cousins had advocated the use of cross-breeding, but when Thomas Lecky was appointed head of Hope Farm in 1942, he instead employed the practice of line breeding.
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Thomas Lecky bred the Jamaica Hope, Red, and Black cattle breeds, adapted for the local climate.
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Thomas Lecky's work revolutionized the Jamaican dairy industry, and scientists flocked to Jamaica to see his work.
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In 1952, Thomas Lecky had the Jamaica Hope registered and recognised.
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Thomas Lecky's work impacted on the development of cattle in many tropical countries.