A descriptive background is given to a group of beef farms in Jamaica on which a series of grass and animal production studies were carried out using technical and economical data derived from those farms over a 5-year period. During this time the farms co-operated in keeping standardized costaccounts and recording detailed outputs from farms and from improved and unimproved lands within those farms. Studies were made of the economics of pasture improvement and also of improvement in husbandry and breeding programmes. The possible value of the results to the small farms in the area is discussed.

The cost of developing and maintaining pangola grass pastures has been examined under a range of conditions. The direct cost of improving pastures to the stage where they were established as 5–10 acre, fenced, watered units of pangola grass was about £30 per acre. Under favourable conditions this cost could be reduced to £20, but with difficult land or poor techniques the cost could rise to £40 or more per acre. In addition to the direct cost of establishment there was an indirect cost due to land being out of use or stock numbers having to be reduced. This indirect cost appeared to be highest on lands where planting costs were least. It was suggested that there might be an inverse relationship between direct and indirect costs which tended to narrow the total range of establishment costs.

Yields from improved (pangola) and unimproved pastures on a group of beef cattle farms have been recorded during the years 1958–62. On these farms it was shown that there was a highly significant relationship between the percentage of improved grassland and the live-weight output per acre of the whole farm. This relationship indicated that the output of unimproved land on these farms was of the order of 45 lb. per acre, and that of improved (pangola) pasture 260 lb. per acre.

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