Goat farmer secures his herd as Hurricane Beryl approaches

Goats are not fans of water and like to keep their hooves dry - the herd owned by Alva Rowe are no different.

Therefore, the livestock farmer was busy yesterday securing his pen and stocking up on grass for the heavy rains that are expected to lash the island in coming days. Rowe has been a goat farmer for more than four decades, and has experienced some of the most dangerous storms and hurricanes including Gilbert, Charlie and Ivan. Thankfully, he has never lost any of the animals during the passage of these weather systems.

"I have my ways of securing the goat pen so very little water if any will go inside. I use tarpaulins and so on. The roof of the pen is very secure because I put heavy things on top of it. I build the pen so breeze can pass through, so this way the impact of the breeze would not be so heavy. My house is in more danger than the goats dem," he said.

A hurricane watch remains in effect for Jamaica as Hurricane Beryl has entered the eastern Caribbean. Pointing to several barrels in his yard, the Corporate Area farmer said he has at least three days' supply of hay and grass for his herd, should Beryl or torrential rains associated with her, lash the island.

"Mi chop a lot of bush and tie them up in bundles and put it up for them to eat. Them have enough can last them and I go market and get cabbage leaves and other vegetables for them, so them can't run out of food. Believe it or not, goats are delicate animals, so they need to have proper shelter and water should the rain fall. Leaving them out in the rain can give them pneumonia," he said.

As he spoke to the news team, the more than three dozen goats stopped their bleating and drew closer. Their eyes were focused on their master and they seemed to understand that the conversation was solely about them. Although the majority of his goats are sold or butchered, Rowe shares a bond with his herd. A few years ago, a video of him giving one of his goats CPR went viral. The farmer has since sold the animal, but not before it gave birth to two bouncing kids.

"Him come and give mi a nice ram kid after. A lot of my goats get damage, but I always heal dem back to life. Sometimes cars lick dem and break dem foot and mi have to mend it back. There was even one that was jumping across the fence and she get caught in the spikes. She was pregnant too, so I had to carefully remove her from the spikes and nurse her back to health. Thankfully, nothing never happen to the kids. Is recently I kill that one and I sold the kids," Rowe said.