Good morning! I’d like to start off today by telling everyone to have a very, very Happy Mother’s Day from Deb and I! We’re going up to my Mom and Dad’s and I’m gonna love on Mama a little while, and then…I’m gonna put on a feedbag!!
We hope you all have just a great day today, and be sure to take the time to tell your family that you love them. Please be careful on the roads and get home safely.
The Sunshine State: It Ain’t All About Tourism
Most people today, when they think of Florida, they think of the Tourism Industry, and tourism is the biggest money maker in regards to Florida’s economy these days.
In 2007, the State of Florida had over 80 million visitors. These people generated $65 billion dollars in revenue.
We have “the Mouse,” or Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, or you might as well just say, “a theme park bonanza” dern near right in our own living room!
Florida has over 1,350 miles of coastal or estuarine areas. This is a big, big draw on its own, and I have to say our coastline is beautiful, and the fishing ain’t bad either. To top this off, the weather down here is just fantastic most of the year.
For the locals this means long growing seasons, plenty of sunshine, most times plenty of rainfall, although we do go through drought or dry times, just like everyone else. With the type of climate we enjoy here, we are blessed with a good, healthy, outdoor lifestyle.
The point of all this is simply that most people don’t have any idea of the agricultural impact our State still has today on the national scene.
Our families, Deb’s and mine both had extensive backgrounds in agriculture. Deb’s mainly in the farming sector, tobacco and vegetables, while mine being the egg business, citrus, and cattle.
We’re both native Floridians, which is just about as rare anymore as the “Albino Gecko.” This tid-bit for our good friend Kunoichi! LOL!!
With this being the case, I’d like to talk a little more today on the subject of agriculture and the tremendous impact it still plays in our economy.
I believe I’m going to be doing a few columns on some of the older days in Florida’s history and the roles certain people, or things played in our state’s growth. But along the way take a look at some of the major players, industry wise, among the many different types of agricultural here in our State.
I know I would find some of these articles to be fascinating and would hope you do as well. For many of our States visitors, this will be their first idea of what we as native Floridians originated from. This also will enlighten them to the impact Florida agriculture, once again, still plays, even worldwide.
Some of these could possibly be the impact of the Spaniards arriving in Florida, and the origins of our first cattle and horses.
From the Andalusian cattle, and horses brought to the State in 1521, by Ponce de Leon, we probably were seeing the first in line, of what ended up in time being the original Florida “Piney-Woods” cattle, and the “Cracker Hose.”
We could take a look at the Seminole Indians and their impact on our State, and how they themselves played major roles in the beginnings of our Cattle Industry here in Florida.
As an example of this they herded between 7,000 to 10,000 head of cattle onto Payne’s Prairie using trained cow dogs. This was around 1775. They believe the prairie to be named after a Seminole Chief, King Payne.
Earlier still, and the origin of the Payne’s Prairie herd of cattle of 1775, was the establishment of Florida’s largest settlement of the time, by followers of the Oconee Creek leader, Cowkeeper, around 1740 in the Alachua area. King Payne was a son of Cowkeeper, and succeeded him after his death.
Several battles were fought here during the Second Seminole War which lasted from 1835 until 1842. Payne’s Prairie human occupation dates back over 12,000 years, and in the late 1600’s the largest cattle ranch in Spanish Florida was right here. It was called La Chua.
During the Civil War, Florida was the leading supplier of beef for both the Confederate and Union troops. Thirty years after the Civil War, Florida was the Nation’s leading exporter of cattle. In one ten year period, 1.6 million cattle were shipped from Florida to Cuba, Key West, and Nassau. This was from 1868 until 1878.
In the 1920s, Florida ranches were ordered to build dip-vats, this is what we’ve always called them, to dip the cattle in a vat filled with an arsenic solution every two weeks. This was because of an outbreak of Texas tick fever.
The picture below shows a cow swimming through such a vat. The cows were made to step off, or slide into the vat then swim to the other end, and exited via a set of stairs made in the vat.
The dipping had to be repeated every 14 days and lasted 18 months. This started with the Texas Tick outbreak in the twenties, but was restarted with the screw worm outbreak in the thirties.
This was caused by cattle brought in from other states. It resurfaced again in 1935, and 1960. There was a screw worm epidemic in the thirties, and we’ll learn of the eradication program involved in regards to the screw worm.
Today, Florida’s beef cattle industry has an economic impact of about $4 billion. There are about 2.6 million cattle in Florida, including beef and milk cows in 2010, up 36,000 from 2009. Osceola, Okeechobee, and Polk are the top three cattle producing counties.
Cattle ranches make up about 1/6 of all land in Florida.
Florida’s citrus crops produce over $9 billion annually, and again, this is only our citrus crop. Florida’s citrus is known worldwide and employees almost 90,000 people.
Citrus is another interesting story in regards to its history. Ravaged many times through the years from the late 1800s until recently through freezes, hurricanes, and diseases brought into the State from other countries, the Florida citrus grower continue to plod along.
Strawberries, tomatoes, and other vegetable crops all are part of our economy. There’s environmental horticulture which includes landscape plants, flowers, and turfgrass, or sod.
We have vineyards and wineries in the State, and aquaculture, which includes raising tropical fish, catfish, aquatic plants and even alligators.
So you see, even briefly, the State of Florida is still a major player in the United States and beyond from an agricultural standpoint. With this being the backdrop, we’ll go in more depth as we move along.
I’d like to say thanks for your dropping by today, and everyone once again, have a fantastic Mother’s Day, with all your family!
God Bless!
Dub and Deb
Oh, I almost forgot. Here’s a couple of the video’s we had taken with the beekeepers the last time they were out. Remember, I couldn’t load them, and had to wait for Red to take them home and upload them for me!
Anyway, here they are…
Checkin Their Hives…or What’s in the Smoker, Sherry?
Miss Melva…”I Got a Bee in My Bonnet!”
How could you write about cattle in Florida without bring up the drover called Florida Crackers (because of the cracking sound of the whips they use to heard their cattle)? The name comes from the sound of whips used to drive cattle and oxen. Florida cattlemen cracked whips to flush their stock out of the palmetto scrub while settlers used whips to spur on oxen that pulled their carts and wagons. Cracker has been used in this sense since the early 1800s. This is the most popular theory today. But it doesn’t explain why people were being called Crackers for centuries before Florida cattlemen began working in the scrub lands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_cracker I know that there are other explanations, but this is the one I like the best.
Rexx
Happy Mothers Day to you as well!
Thanks for such an informative post. I would never have associated Florida with prairies or beef! Cirtus, vegetables – especially tomatos – and berries, sure, but the cattle industry seems more of a central North America thing.
The dip vats were interesting to read about. I know the sheep dips were stopped when it turned out the chemicals in the dip was killing off the people working with it. Was there a similar issue with the dip used for cows?
I’m curious about this screw worm now. Oh! Oh, my. I just made the mistake of looking it up on google images. What horrible damage they did! We had some sort of fly that laid their eggs on our cows, but nothing like this. *shudder* Our cows would get these big bumps in their skin with a hole in the middle, like some sort of giant zit. When we were little, one of my brothers and I used to poke at the bumps and try and look into the holes on the few cows patient enough to put up with us. *L* If there were only a few of them, it was no problem and we’d just let them be. It took quite a lot of them before they became a danger to the cows. Then my dad would buy a particular white powdered poison that he’d sprinkle onto the cows’ backs that would kill off the larva and prevent the flies from laying more eggs. Whatever these things were, the definitely weren’t as bad as these screw worms!
“Florida Crackers: The Cattlemen and Cowboys of Florida”, produced by the Self Discovery Production Team, is an 87 minute high quality documentary and the only feature-length movie about the Florida Cracker Cattle Culture produced by a man raised in the culture, who grew up as a working cowboy on a ranch near Fort Pierce, Florida.
Filmed in high definition format, this movie portrays this formerly unrecognized aspect of the beautiful state’s heritage – the real-life cattlemen and cowboys who are still working the land to this day.
Florida Crackers tells the story of this state’s little-known cattle culture, which dates back to 1521, when Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon landed in Florida and introduced the first cattle and horses to North America, thus setting the stage for the first American cowboys and cattle industry to be born.
Florida Crackers was filmed on some of the biggest and oldest ranches in Florida. One, the Adams Ranch of Fort Pierce, famous for creating the Braford cattle breed, received the 1999 Ranch of the Century award from the National Cattleman’s Beef Association.
Working with a small film crew and with minimal impact, with the Crackers telling their own story unscripted and in their own words, this movie creates an intimate style of documentary filming that is going to impact the film industry for years to come.
Filmed on several working ranches in Florida’s pristine cattle country, and including some of Florida’s best Cattlemen, Cowboys and Cowgirls, this one-of-a-kind film provides an exclusive inside view into the Florida Crackers lifestyle while also showcasing Florida’s unique natural environment and wildlife.
A few of the prominent figures featured in the movie are: Mr. Bud Adams, the Carlton Family, “Alligator” Ron Bergeron, Ms. Iris Wall, Mr. Pete Clemons and former State Agriculture Commissioner, Charles Bronson.
For the first time ever, there are more people living in cities than in the country, and this movie has an important message that many people around the World are waiting to hear, about the core values of the Cracker Culture, who are true stewards of not just the land, but of a way of life, where integrity, courage, honesty and respect are normal.
Since the release 2 weeks ago of the 1st limited run of “Florida Crackers” on DVD, people are giving rave reviews! Everybody loves this movie! It is the history of how the cattle industry started in Florida & the day-to-day life of today’s Cattlemen and Cowboys, our Heroes.
To purchase a copy online, or to see if it’s available at a retailer near you, click here:
http://www.wethepeopledistribution.com/movies.html