Reduced Beef Ranches in Central Florida

"The Happiest Identify on Earth."

That's what Walt Disney coined information technology, and and then practice the millions of people that reside and flock to the Sunshine State each twelvemonth.

It'southward hard to believe, due to Florida'due south relatively small size when compared to some of our Western states and its high water table and wetland areas, but the statistic tossed effectually gator country is 1,000 people move to Florida each week.

Yes, you heard that right, one,000 people per week!

While most of this growth is occurring forth the littoral areas, information technology is likewise seeping into Florida's prime cattle country, which sits in the cardinal region, merely south of Orlando and due north of Lake Okeechobee inside I-95 on the Due east Coast and I-75 on the West Declension.

And ranchers are feeling the growing pains.

"Trying to coexist with tourism is a large challenge for producers," says Todd Clemons, part-owner of Okeechobee Livestock Marketplace. "Disney World and both the East Coast and the Westward Coast are inundated with people."

Despite existence the third-most populous state – with 22 meg people – Florida is ranked 12th in the nation for its corporeality of beef cows. Primal Florida counties such equally Okeechobee, Highlands, Osceola and Polk are listed in the summit 50 beef counties in the land and about of the state'southward roughly ii million head are located in this primal region.

To further illustrate just how many cattle are in the heart of Florida, Clemons says they sell about 100,000 head through their band each yr. Arcadia Stockyard, which is just 60 miles west of them, sells roughly 100,000 head likewise.

"Just our ii markets sell 200,000 head a yr," Clemons says. "I think in that location are nine markets in the state, selling close to a half a million head of cattle a year, and our two markets in fundamental Florida sell close to 200,000 head – nigh one-half of the corporeality of cattle that go through auction barns go through these two down here."

Environmental problems

With its palms and pines, cypress forests and palmettos, central Florida also encompasses a 2.6 million-acre watershed – the headwaters of the Everglades – that stretches beyond nearly one million acres of working cattle ranches. This system flows into Lake Okeechobee and beyond, to the Everglades and the coasts, and has seen an increment in phosphorus and other nutrients over the years, making ranchers in this expanse an easy target to criticism.

"With their arrival, people bring preconceived perceptions that agronomics is bad for the environment," says Alex Johns, by president of Florida Cattlemen's Association (FCA) and managing director of the Seminole Tribe of Florida's cattle programme in Brighton. "So not merely are we losing precious green space, just we accept to fight those misinformed public perceptions."

Johns, who completed his presidency last June, devoted a lot of time to immigration up misconceptions nearly ranching and water quality. He says, "My experience [as FCA president] has been rewarding. We continued to educate the public on the science and the facts. Nosotros know that ranchers filter water and are a big assistance in removing nutrients from the waterways. We besides know cattle in Florida are internet exporters of phosphorus. We ship hundreds of thousands of calves out of the state each year that comport phosphorus in their bodies to destinations out Westward."

Cadet Island Ranch owned by the Archbold Biological Station foundation in Lake Placid is no dissimilar in their delivery to preserving Florida's cattle country and natural resources. The only difference is both cowboys and scientists work together.

"Nosotros exercise environmental-type research on a operation, working cattle ranch," says Gene Lollis, Buck Island's ranch manager. "We run roughly 3,000 cows, and we expect at what the impacts of our agronomical operations are on our natural surround. I don't know of any other place where the science is tied into a total-scale working cattle ranch."

Lollis says when he showtime started at Buck Island Ranch, he was approached by a local cattleman who told him he was going to destroy the cattle manufacture in the country of Florida. Lollis'south response was: "If nosotros don't become some of these numbers and observe the truth behind some of the questions being asked, you lot're dead and yous don't fifty-fifty know it."

Since its start in 1988, Buck Island Ranch has debunked some of the myths effectually Florida ranches and is a fundamental leader in a collaborative country and national partnership that provides incentives for ranchers to implement strategies to tedious the flow of water from their working lands, reducing damaging flows and nutrients downstream. They have also studied the effects of controlled fires and moderate grazing on the diversity of native wetland plants and endangered species.

"We want to educate the general public on the importance of ranching or the importance of open space," Lollis says. "The millions of people that live here in the state of Florida think these ranches are desolate wetlands that don't have anything. We have 171 bird species that be here because of what we practise and 455 plant species considering of what we do: ranching."

Preserving Florida'due south heritage

In an try to preserve dark-green space and Florida's ranching heritage, the land has funded conservation programs that let ranchers to sell their development rights. While this gives participating ranchers peace of heed that their operations will continue for generations, the general population besides benefits from water filtration and recharge, as well as the protection of many endangered and threatened wildlife species that inhabit the land.

Lightsey Cattle Co. in Lake Wales was the starting time ranch in the state in 1991 to turn some of their country over to conservation easements. Cary Lightsey, fifth-generation, says, "The surround and conservation are important to our family. We've done easements on 88 percentage of our country, so it has to stay in ranching. It feels good knowing that is what our family will be doing for a long time."

Lightsey'south resistance to growth comes from a heritage that dates dorsum to the 1850s, which he and his blood brother Layne have worked diligently to maintain for their children and grandchildren. They, forth with many others in the fundamental area, have been awarded the National Cattlemen's Beef Association's Environmental Stewardship Award for their dedication to the country, and they take pride in their efforts.

"Our land keeps getting amend and amend," Lightsey says of central Florida. "I think in another fifty years, our grass is going to be so strong with some of our improved varieties, but if it is asphalt or physical, we'll never be able to prove what nosotros tin do. There is no sign of growth slowing downwardly."

Cow-dogie country

Some of the biggest operations in the beef manufacture reside in key Florida, including Lykes Brothers and Deseret Cattle & Citrus. Clint Richardson, general manager of Deseret, says that the high rainfall (upwards of 55 inches per year, mostly in a six-month flow) and long growing season make this region favorable for cow-dogie production.

Richardson says, "We can grow a high volume of improved provender for most of the twelvemonth, allowing for college annual stocker rates. Too, readily available footing and surface h2o allow for more than intensive rotational grazing organization to better forage utilization and cattle operation."

Besides a few abound yards north of Gainesville where the geography is similar to Alabama and Georgia, the majority of calves in this region are sold to the feedlot states in the Midwest. A truckload heading to the panhandle of Texas takes about 26 to 28 hours. Richardson says the estrus and humidity, low-quality forages, and being a long altitude from feed commodities and feeding operations, go far a hard environment for stocker and feeder cattle.

Side by side twelvemonth, Florida will celebrate 500 years since Juan Ponce de Leon landed in St. Augustine in 1521 and became the first European to discover our 27th land. It wasn't long later that, that cattle were introduced to the New World and cattle ranching became Florida'south oldest industry. While many parts of Florida have already succumbed to subdivisions and other development, the subtropical heart of Florida remains prime cow country.

"Information technology would be a great loss to Florida to not be able to come across a cow grazing in the pasture or a cowboy gathering the cattle, considering nosotros accept such a long history," Lollis says. "Information technology'due south my promise that ranching in Florida can continue for some other 500 years."

PHOTO 1:Environmental stewardship is important to Florida ranchers as they work hard to maintain their precious greenish space.Photo courtesy of Deseret Cattle & Citrus.

PHOTO 2: Progressive Cattle Florida.

Photograph three:Buck Island Ranch encompasses more than ten,000 acres of one of the world's most ecologically diverse regions – the subtropical heart of Florida.Photo by Cassidy Woolsey.

PHOTO 4:Okeechobee Livestock Market sells about 100,000 caput of cattle through their ring each yr and offers padded seating for their customers. Now that's hospitality!Photograph past Cassidy Woolsey.

Photo 5:Employees at Deseret Cattle & Citrus are BQA-certified and practice low-stress handling.Photo courtesy of Deseret Cattle & Citrus.

PHOTO half dozen: Employees at Deseret Cattle & Citrus are BQA-certified and practice low-stress handling.Photo by Cassidy Woolsey.

PHOTO 7:Deseret Cattle & Citrus is in the path of growth, not far from Orlando International Airport, Space Declension and some of Florida's most famous beaches.Photo by Cassidy Woolsey.

PHOTO 8:Gators, Osceola turkeys and endangered Sherman fox squirrels are just a few of the many animals that call Lightsey Cattle Co. home.Photos by Cassidy Woolsey.

• Cassidy Woolsey

• Editor
• Progressive Cattle
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Source: https://www.progressivecattle.com/features/regional-features/central-florida-keeping-cattle-sustainable-in-the-path-of-growth

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