From Open Range to Cutting-Edge Agriculture: A Journey through Generations in Pasco County, Florida

My dad was born in 1923 in my family’s farmhouse in Pasco County, Florida. He was the second youngest of 10 children. At the time the house had no electricity and no running water and wouldn’t have either until the late 1940s. My grandpa and grandma grew virtually everything the family ate. They had cattle, hogs, and goats on open range, and grew various crops such as corn, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and had a citrus grove. Monthly wagon rides to town were an opportunity to sell a few crops, trade eggs, and purchase items like coffee, flour, and other supplies to last the month.

In those days Florida was still an open-range state. That meant that back then livestock was fenced out, not fenced in. Any crop fields or yards someone did not want grazed or rooted up had to be fenced. My grandpa had several hundred head of cattle, hogs, and goats in the open range. Grandma maintained a flock of chickens, turkeys and ducks. Every evening my grandpa would light a ‘smudge’, or a small smoky fire, around which some of his cattle would often lie to help ward off flies and mosquitoes. He did always keep at least one milk cow, and kept her calf penned up so she would return for regular milkings. He would also feed some grain to his goats and pen them up for the night to protect against predators, which were still rampant at the time in Florida. He milked the goats and some of the cows, and my grandmother made cheese for the family. The penned up goats and milk cows, along with the wood cows that would gather around the smoke, would provide a very important resource for Florida’s sandy soils-manure. Commercial fertilizer was not readily available back then. Grandpa would use this manure to fertilize his crops and his grove. He would also plant things like cow peas, velvet beans, chuffa, and peanuts to also help finish cattle and hogs. Some of these crops also helped to improve the soil. Sometimes the poultry aided in removing insects from vegetable plantings. All of these practices were very circular. Grandpa understood the animals depended on the crops, and the crops depended on the animals.

This notion of sustainability has always been a theme in agriculture. As agriculture modernized in the twentieth century, there was certainly a move toward specialization. The small family farm that fed the family while any excess products funded a small wage gave way to larger operations which often focused on one or two crops or enterprises. This specialization, along with research and technology, has allowed modern farmers and ranchers the ability to produce food more effectively and to consistently increase yields. With a global population of over 8 billion people, we have the ability to produce high quality fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy products, and grains for everyone on our planet with a smaller percentage of its citizens working in production agriculture. However, sustainability is still a central theme in agriculture.

Take for example the modern dairy industry. My uncle was in the dairy business and maintained a milking herd of a few hundred lactating cows. Now most dairies in Florida milk no less than 5,000 lactating cows, not counting dry cows and heifers. Each one of these animals is producing, on average, much more milk than her ancestors did even 20 years ago and certainly more than they did 50 or 100 years ago. These cows are often housed in what is known as a free-stall barn. She is allowed to move around and eat and drink at will, has a nice clean, dry bed to lay in at her leisure, and walks to the milking parlor two to three times a day to be milked. While she is in the milking parlor, her barn is cleaned and all the manure and urine is collected and separated. Waste solids are used to fertilize fields that will grow her feed for the coming year. The water is collected and used to irrigate those same fields. On some dairies now, the waste is held to capture methane, and that methane is harvested and used to generate electricity on farm, and sometimes electricity is even sold back to the grid! Nothing goes to waste.

Whenever you enjoy a glass of cold milk, or a biscuit, or a salad, or a hamburger, remember the modern farmer and rancher works hard to ensure you are eating the highest-quality, safest food possible. Just like my grandpa understood the interconnectivity of all of his land, animals, trees, and crops, modern farmers work hard to keep their lands safe to pass on to the next generation.

Dr. Chris DeCubellis is a State Specialized 4-H Agent with the UF/IFAS Extension Service and helps coordinate state-level animal science and poultry programs for youth. Chris also has a small cow-calf and vegetable operation with his family outside of Archer, Florida. Chris is a native Floridian originally from Pasco County where his family has been for generations.