I’VE SAID IT BEFORE, but it merits repeating: Florida agriculture is big. Make that HUGE. It’s huge in scope, in numbers, and importance — importance not only to those of us fortunate to live here but also to people across the nation and around the world.
CATTLE RANCHING in Florida has a long and storied past that may surprise you. The first cattle were brought here with Ponce De Leon and the Spanish explorers in 1521. Those seven Andalusians were likely the ancestors of the Florida scrub cattle that later became the herds of both Seminole natives and pioneer settlers.
THE 2012 CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE counted 2.1 million farms in the U.S., with 97 percent being considered family-owned operations. While that designation could be any number of configurations of family members, siblings, and extended kin, the one that packs the most important punch is the multigenerational family farming business. We count the number of farming …
A smoother transition for passing on the family farming tradition Read More »
WE IN FLORIDA have known for quite some time how grand, how diverse, and how wonderful agriculture in the Sunshine State really is — and how much more grand it’s destined to be. Now, a bunch of folks way up north, in the U.S. Midwest, are learning about Florida’s special place in American agriculture, too.
How one recipient of the Agricultural-Environmental Leadership Award is conserving our state’s resources THOSE IN AGRICULTURE have long been stewards of the lands that they utilize to raise a crop or turn out livestock to pasture, but some go above and beyond the norm. In Florida, ag producers who utilize “environmentally innovative farming practices” are …
WITH THE USDA’S most recent Florida orange crop estimate at a troubling 69 million, there’s no doubt that Florida citrus growers face some tough questions. As a result of citrus greening (or HLB), the industry’s harvest has reduced more than 50 percent over the past decade. Any way you slice it, that’s a big cut, …
THE PLANNNED SALE of a herd of Ona White Angus cattle, a new and Central Florida-hardy breed of cattle, has been canceled.
JUST AS CITRUS GROWERS have done for many years, area industry folks gathered together to listen to the estimates for the upcoming harvest via the USDA Citrus Crop Forecast.
THE 2015-2016 school year is well under way! We have a lot of exciting events going on in different Ag departments as a way to recruit new members into the local FFA chapters! But before we can see what each chapter is doing, we need to meet some of our awesome agriculture teachers.
THIS PAST SPRING, we were able to take our kids to a local farm for u-pick blueberries. It was a nice pre-summer day — breezy, but still hot by non-Floridian standards. Still, it was just right for us Sunshine State natives. We had them out with hats, plenty of sun-block, and ready for lots of …
From the Editor’s Desk: Do you teach your kids agriculture? Read More »
