Show Title: Enviro-Ranching
Producer: Bill Kelsey
Time: 27:40
Show begins here:
>>>TODAY ON IMPACT... ENVIRO-RANCHING. FLORIDA RANCHING AND THE ENVIRONMENT
---(It can't be replaced. That's the thing about it. They're not making any more land, and the value of this land keeps going up for other uses, but maintaining it in the ranching life style is extremely important.)---
>>>THIS IS IMPACT, A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.
---(Mooing of cattle)---
>>>THINK OF RANCHES, AND YOU PROBABLY FIND YOURSELF THINKING OF CATTLE AND HORSES. BUT THERE'S A RANCH IN SOUTH FLORIDA THAT MAY BE BEST KNOWN FOR IT'S KINDNESS TO OUR ENVIRONMENT. AND THANKS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, PROVES IT CAN HAVE CLEAN AIR AND WATER, AND AGRICULTURE TOO.
---(mooing of cattle)---
>>>VOICE OF BUD ADAMS, RANCHER: A lot of our methods are right out of the nineteenth century. We put bulls with cows. They eat grass and have calves. They're taken care of by men on horseback. We raise our horses; we raise our dogs. We still do things that people have not found a way to improve on in 100 years, and we're one of the few businesses that are able to do that. The value of that is that it gives us something that interests our children and our grandchildren and will encourage them to stay with the land and do it because it is a good way of life. It also has to be economically sound, and you have to run it like a business and we do that.
>>>PERHAPS NO ONE THINKS MORE HIGHLY OF THEIR LAND THAN DOES FORT PIERCE RANCHER BUD ADAMS. WHILE MANY WOULD LOOK AT SOME 20,000 ACRES OF LAND AND CONSIDER THE NUMBER OF HOMES THAT MIGHT BE BUILT HERE, OR HOW SUCH LAND MIGHT BE BEST-MANAGED BY THE STATE AS A PRESERVE, ADAMS SEES THINGS QUITE DIFFERENTLY. KNOWN OFFICIALLY AS ADAMS RANCH, INCORPORATED, THIS LAND OF HAMMOCKS AND GRASSES AND CITRUS TREES IS BETTER-KNOWN THROUGHOUT SOUTH FLORIDA SIMPLY AS THE BUD ADAMS RANCH. IT'S BEING A GOOD NEIGHBOR THAT MUCH OF THE BUD ADAMS RANCH SEEMS TO BE ALL ABOUT.
>>>BUD ADAMS, RANCHER: Any action that we have has an effect on our neighbors. It's kind of hard for us to get used to living in a regulated society. It wasn't necessary 50 years ago. Today it is necessary. And if...we have a million and a half people living fairly close to us, and those people require a lot of water. They all have automobiles. They have air conditioners. They generate; they require a lot of water and and a lot of oxygen, and they generate a lot of carbon and pollution and other things. And you need certain greenbelts to furnish your watersheds; to the plants; the green grass and the trees to pick up the carbon and release the oxygen. And I think that what we're doing is a benefit to our neighbors. And to have these green areas that are still on the tax roles: They still pay taxes to support schools and the local governments, and offer employment to people. Why, that's the way that a free enterprise system should work.
>>>TO GET A FEEL FOR THE LAY OF THE LAND AT THE BUD ADAMS RANCH, AND FOR HOW CATTLE SEEM TO TAKE THEIR NATURAL PLACE IN THE SCHEME OF THINGS THERE, THERE ARE THE MANY PHOTOS ADAMS HAS TAKEN OVER THE YEARS. FOR WILDLIFE SHOTS, ADAMS REASONED EARLY ON THAT IF HE KEPT A CAMERA AT HIS SIDE, HE'D CAPTURE SEVERAL GLIMPSES OF NATURE THAT ARE RARELY SEEN. SO, THERE ARE ADAMS PRINTS AND COMPLETE BOOKS BY ADAMS ON THE SUBJECT OF WILDLIFE AT THE BUD ADAMS RANCH. NOT THAT HE ENJOYS TAKING PICTURES ALL THAT MUCH. ADAMS IS QUICK TO POINT OUT THAT HE DOES NOT, BUT THAT HE DOES ENJOY GOOD PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THAT THE ONLY WAY HE KNOWS TO COME UP WITH WHAT HE ENVISIONS IN EACH EXPOSURE IS TO SHOOT IT HIMSELF. TO ADAMS, MANY OF THE PRINTS PROVIDE A PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORD OF HOW THE RANCH HAS EVOLVED SINCE HIS FAMILY FIRST BEGAN ACQUIRING ACREAGE IN ST. LUCIE COUNTY.
>>>ADAMS: What I've tried to show in these photographs is to show both the wildlife and the habitat that it's in; the food that it's eating,. And all of these are, of course, in complete, natural settings. And someday, it will be a record of what the land looked like, as well as the wildlife. And since we've been on the ranch, we have more different species of wildlife than we had 50 years ago and we also have greater numbers, like the roseate spoonbill, the Everglades kites, and many of the species that we have now were just about killed out 50 years ago. This is a red shouldered hawk, and he apparently caught the snake because they feed on the snakes. But somehow, the snake got control of the hawk, and when I found them, they were on the ground and the snake had the hawk wrapped up. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when I saw it, but it's just one of those things you see once in a lifetime and you're thankful you have your camera.
>>>ADAMS SAYS HE DIDN'T INTERVENE. HE SAYS ANOTHER TIME WHEN HE JUST HAPPENED TO BE THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME INVOLVED A BIRD THAT CAN RARELY BE SEEN UP CLOSE.
>>>This was a cypress head I was on. I was on the inside of it, and there wasn't but a gap of six feet in there, and that eagle flew in there and I threw up a 600 millimeter lens and took his picture. It accidentally was in focus, and I got him in one of the few places where I really had a view of him.
>>>ADAMS SAYS OTHER ACTIVITY MOST VISITORS TO THE RANCH WON'T OBSERVE FIRST HAND HAS TO DO WITH THE BEHAVIOR OF DEER.
>>>ADAMS: A lot of people don't realize how female deer fight. They fight on their hind legs and with their front feet, whereas the bucks, why they fight with their antlers.
>>>CATTLE HAVE BEEN ON THE LAND THAT WOULD BECOME THE ADAMS RANCH FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS; CATTLE BROUGHT BY SPANIARDS IN THE 1500s THAT HELPED SHAPE THE LAND. NATIVE TRIBES ALSO RAISED CATTLE IN THIS AREA,, AS DID SETTLERS OUT OF THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA IN THE LATE 1800s. BUT THE LAND WOULD REMAIN OPEN RANGE LAND UNTIL 1937. BY THEN, FEWER THAN A HUNDRED YEARS HAD PASSED SINCE FLORIDA HAD ATTAINED STATEHOOD. FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT BEGAN SERVING HIS SECOND TERM AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ROOSEVELT HAD OBSERVED IN HIS INAUGURAL ADDRESS THAT THINGS WERE NOT WELL WITH A COUNTRY IN WHICH MILLIONS OF PEOPLE LACKED THE MEANS TO BUY PRODUCTS OF FARMS AND FACTORIES. THE COUNTRY WAS IN RECESSION. IN FLORIDA, BRIDGES THAT HAD BEEN CONSTRUCTED FOR HENRY FLAGLER'S RAILROAD TO TAKE EARLIER TOURISTS TO THE FLORIDA KEYS WERE BEING CONVERTED FOR USE AS AN OVERSEAS HIGHWAY, AND PINEAPPLES WERE BEING GROWN IN ST. LUCIE COUNTY. AND IN 1937, ALTO ADAMS, AN ATTORNEY WHO WOULD GO ON TO BECOME FLORIDA CHIEF JUSTICE ADAMS, WAS FOLLOWING HIS DOCTOR'S ADVICE TO GET OUT FROM BEHIND HIS DESK, AND WAS BUYING ACREAGE IN WHICH HE COULD ENJOY THE GREAT OUTDOORS. BUD ADAMS SAYS HIS FATHER'S EARLIER EXPERIENCES WITH MANAGING LAND HAD BROUGHT DISAPPOINTMENT AND HAD CAUSED THE SENIOR ADAMS TO LOOK FOR A DIFFERENT WAY TO EARN A LIVING.
>>>BUD ADAMS: My father was born in Walton County, north of Defuniak Springs. And his father had a large family on a farm where they plowed mules and raised corn and cotton and the normal things that southern farmers had. When each son finished his school, why he was given forty acres and a mule. My father's brothers took theirs and were farmers, and he tried clearing the land in one summer and decided he wasn't cut out for that, so he offered my grandfather to give him the land and mule back if he'd send him to the University of Florida. And so my father went to law school and graduated as an attorney. He practiced a year or so in Pensacola and he came down to this part of the state. He went first to Stuart, and Stuart did not have a courthouse in those days, and so he came back to Fort Pierce. And he was down to about his last fifty dollars, so he decided to settle in Fort Pierce. He practiced all types of law during his early part of his life. And as he got to be about 35 years old, why the doctors told him, 'you're not going to live very long unless; you get out of doors and get some fresh air and exercise.' So he had hunted on some of this land out here which was just open range in those days, and he found out that it belonged to a man in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And he went out to see him, and the man wanted, I think, a dollar and a quarter an acre for the land. And my dad said, 'Well, I don't have that much money.' And he said 'Well, I will sell it to you on credit, and you pay me when you can.'
>>>BUD ADAMS SAYS THERE HAVE BEEN CHANGES TO THE LAND SINCE IT WAS FIRST ACQUIRED BY HIS FATHER.
>>>ADAMS: It was not fenced. There was nothing here. And it was just a place that people hunted on and free ranged cattle on. But he fenced the land and in the late 1930's he went on to the Florida Supreme Court. We sold our cattle to Erlo Bronson of Kissimmee and the ranch was generally; had cattle on it during World War Two, but there wasn't really anything done with the cattle. So after World War Two, why I graduated from the University of Florida and I came back down here, and I've managed the ranch since then.
>>>PART OF THAT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY INVOLVED THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HYBRID BREED OF CATTLE FOR THE RANCH; A BREED THAT CAN TOLERATE SOUTH FLORIDA'S SUMMER TEMPERATURES WITHOUT HAVING TO COOL OFF BY WADING IN WATER. ADAMS SAYS THIS IS PART OF BEING A GOOD NEIGHBOR BECAUSE WASTE PRODUCTS OF CATTLE THAT REMAIN ON LAND ARE BENEFICIAL TO THE LAND, WHERE OTHER BREEDS OF CATTLE ARE KNOWN TO ADD NUTRIENTS TO WATER, WHERE THEY ARE UNDESIRABLE, IN THE FORM OF THEIR WASTE PRODUCTS. HE REMEMBERS TURNING TO GENETICISTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES FOR ADVICE ON JUST HOW TO GO ABOUT DEVELOPING A BREED OF CATTLE THAT WOULD HAVE TRAITS OF BOTH INDIAN BRAHMAN, AND OF HEREFORD CATTLE.
>>>ADAMS: When we started the Braford Program, we did that because there wasn't a breed of cattle that were, you might say, designed for Florida conditions. And we crossed the Brahman and Hereford cattle and we got cattle that were working here. We weren't quite sure whether this could be a sustained program or not, so we went to the University of Florida. Dr . Culger, Dr. Cunya were most helpful with this. They gave us books on genetics, and they said using cross-bred bulls like we started off doing--part brahman and part Hereford, is not normally done. And it wasn't normally done because the bulls were heterozygous. They did not breed true to type. But Dr. Culger said, 'You know, if you breed those bulls and if you get some acceptable animals, they will be more homozygous than their sires were. And so we did that, and they were.
>>>JUST AS THE CATTLE THAT FIRST GRAZED THESE LANDS ARE NO LONGER SEEN HERE, THERE HAVE BEEN CHANGES TO WHAT GROWS ON THE LAND AS WELL. CHANGES TO BETTER SUPPORT NUTRITIONAL NEEDS NOT ONLY OF CATTLE, BUT OF WILDLIFE, TOO. A PHILOSOPHY OF LAND MANAGEMENT AT THE ADAMS RANCH IS NOT SIMPLY TO KEEP THINGS AS THEY ALWAYS HAVE BEEN, BUT TO IMPROVE THEM, AND SO LEGUMES HAVE REPLACED MUCH OF THE ORIGINAL RANGE GRASS. IN ADDITION TO BEING HIGHER IN PROTEIN, AND BRINGING IMPROVED NUTRITION TO CATTLE, DEER, WILD TURKEY AND OTHER WILDLIFE, ADAMS POINTS OUT THAT LEGUMES DO GOOD THINGS FOR THE SOIL AS THEY GROW, PUTTING NITROGEN AND ORGANIC MATTER BACK INTO IT, MAKING POSSIBLE A SUSTAINABLE, LOW MAINTENANCE FORM OF AGRICULTURE. ON THE RANCH, THERE IS BUT ONE TRACTOR. BACK AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S SCHOOL OF ANIMAL SCIENCE IN GAINESVILLE, IMPACT ASKED ANIMAL NUTRITIONIST AND CHAIR OF HIS DEPARTMENT DR. GLEN HEMBRY HOW WELL THIS ALL WORKS OUT AS A REGULAR DIET FOR CATTLE.
>>>DR. GLEN HEMBRY, UF ANIMAL NUTRITIONIST: When you incorporate the legumes into the grass, then you have increased the protein content of the overall mixture. And this is beneficial both to the livestock and also to the wildlife. And I think that's one of the reasons we do see a real good wildlife population at the Adams Ranch. That, along with a lot of the other things that they do. I think what the Adams Ranch has done; has done a very good job of taking some of the natural range land that was there and had been in existence for many years, and has worked that very well into their overall nutritional program. They do have some improved pastures that they work with the range land, but they've managed to maximize the amount of range land that they use, and they've done this by having a relatively low stocking rate in their beef cattle program. And one of the things that that's done then has allowed for a good bit of space for a lot of the wildlife to be present. And so by using a combination strategically of some improved pasture and a lot of native range, and by keeping the stocking rate down on their cattle, they have been able to have a good nutritional program which is forage based for their beef cattle.
>>>STILL ANOTHER CHANGE TO WHAT GROWS ON THE BUD ADAMS RANCH INCLUDES THE INTRODUCTION OF CITRUS. DR. GEORGE TANNER, A RANGE AND WILDLIFE ECOLOGIST WHO TEACHES CLASSES IN HABITAT MANAGEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, VISITED THE RANCH ONE LATE MARCH MORNING, TANNER SAYS THERE'S MORE THAN ONE REASON FOR SUCH DIVERSIFICATION ON FLORIDA RANCHES.
>>>GEORGE TANNER, UF RANGE ECOLOGIST: Here we see a combination of citrus production and cattle production. And the combination of the products allows the landowners to somewhat hedge against some unknown market situations whereby one product possibly could offset the other products in years when the prices are down or up in the various types of commodities. So it lends its stability on the economic front that helps keep the agriculturist operating and on the landscape.
>>>TO KEEP CITRUS LOVING BUGS AT BAY, THEIR NATURAL ENEMIES, SUCH AS A TINY SOUTHEAST ASIAN PARASITIC WASP INTRODUCED BY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ENTOMOLOGIST DR. MARJORIE HOY, QUIETLY GO ABOUT THEIR WORK HERE. THEIR JOB IS TO CONTROL CITRUS LEAF MINER DAMAGE. WHILE EVERY CITRUS GROWING REGION IN THE SUNSHINE STATE HAS ITS OWN OUTSTANDING GROWING CHARACTERISTICS, ADAMS SAYS THAT ON HIS RANCH, IT'S THE SOIL THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.
>>>ADAMS: Our land here is sandy on top, but immediately under the sand layer is a layer of shell. And we think that's why the Indian River quality citrus has the thin skin, good quality and mild taste on the grapefruit. But your calcium and phosphorus ratios are in a natural form that makes it good quality fruit.
>>>THEN, THERE'S THE WATER.
>>>ADAMS: We can store our water on site to irrigate the groves, and since citrus mainly is water, why, you shouldn't be in the citrus business without a good source of water.
>>>AND IT'S THE WATER THAT EXTENDS TO WHAT GEORGE TANNER DESCRIBES AS ONE OF THE SERVICES SUCH LAND PROVIDES TO THE PEOPLE OF FLORIDA.
>>>TANNER: People need to realize the; what is termed the services that are being provided to society; services in groundwater recharge, in maintaining open spaces for the natural wildlife species that occur here. These are the things that are very hard to put a dollar value on. But once they're gone, everyone always says, 'Gosh, I wish we had that back.;' And it usually takes orders of magnitudes of more money to put it back than it is to maintain it there. It is a service to society in keeping this here. And I think, by and large, the ranching industry is not being compensated for that. If anything, oftentimes, this is my personal opinion, they're always being talked against for one reason or another. And people don't realize that is there..
>>>VOICE OF BUD ADAMS: The water here is; circulates through a canal system that's connected to a series of reservoirs for re-nourishment. And we keep clean water in these ditches, and it's home to the small minnows that eat the mosquito larvae, so we have good control of our bugs. The larger fish feed on the minnows, and then the soft-shell turtles like were here, and the alligator that was just here; they feed on that. The birds; wood storks you see here in the distance: There's a large number of wading birds. They follow the water. And this water system; it serves to take the water in surplus times to the reservoirs, and then it will return the water to the pastures when it's needed. So we try to retain a large percent of our water here on the property, which relieves downstream flooding and also makes us self-sustainable for water.
>>>ADAMS SAYS READING ABOUT HIS RANCH, OR EVEN SEEING IT ON TELEVISION IS ONE THING, BUT THAT TO REALLY GET A FEEL FOR HOW IT ALL WORKS, REQUIRES A VISIT. THAT'S WHY HE'S CONTRACTED WITH AN ORLANDO THEME PARK THAT IS RESPONDING TO REQUESTS FROM ITS VISITORS FOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO SEE THE "REAL FLORIDA." AND SO THAT A WIDE REPRESENTATION OF FLORIDA FISH SPECIES MAY BE SEEN AT ONE VENUE, A STREAM IS BEING STOCKED... ONCE AGAIN, GIVING NATURE A LITTLE HELP.
>>>ADAMS: We're going to use the natural fish that are in the canals and all. And then this stream goes right on around, and we'll have a nature walk that'll go back where they can go through a hammock and various other things.
>>>NEARBY IS A HOUSE ADAMS HAS BUILT, THAT HE SAYS, IN A SPECIAL WAY, IS HIS FAVORITE PLACE.
>>>ADAMS: That place is designed with vents up there, and even when there's not much breeze, it's cool here. Basically, it is post and beam, like the early penthouses were built, and you see the four corners and the pieces that go in there. They're cut to fit. And they are basically joined together without a lot of bolts and things.
>>>IMPACT SEES QUITE A DIFFERENT TYPE OF HISTORY AS ADAMS SHOWS US THE RANCH LIBRARY. HERE, MEMORIES OF EARLIER TIMES ARE RE-KINDLED NOT ONLY BY BOUND VOLUMES, BUT BY PORTRAITS. AMONG THEM IS ADAMS FATHER...HIS PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER. ONE TAKEN BY FAMED PHOTOGRAPHER ALFRED EISENSTADT OF A 13-YEAR-OLD DOROTHY SNIVELY WHEN SHE WAS WORKING AT CYPRESS GARDENS HAD APPEARED ON THE COVER OF LIFE MAGAZINE. A MORE RECENT PORTRAIT SHOWS THE SAME PERSON AS MRS. BUD ADAMS, WHO WE LATER MEET ON THE PATIO OF THE MAIN RANCH HOUSE. DOT ADAMS SAYS THE SOLITUDE OF LIFE ON THE RANCH TOOK SOME TIME TO GET USED TO.
>>>DOT ADAMS: I had never really been by myself, because I came from a large family. And when he left in the morning, I would really be by myself. You know, when he was out working. Now that was really hard. Especially if there was thunder and lightning, or anything. You know. Because you really did feel isolated then because I really was by myself.
>>>BUT CHILDREN, AS THEY OFTEN DO, WOULD KEEP DOT ADAMS OCCUPIED, AND FROM BECOMING LONELY--THREE SONS, WHO ARE NOW TAKING OVER SOME OF THE REIGNS OF COMMAND AT THE RANCH.
>>>BUD ADAMS: This is a family owned business, and it's principally run by my three sons now. But we have 13 grandchildren. My sister also has sons and grandchildren, and we try to operate the ranch so that there's an opportunity here for the future generations to make a living here.
>>>GEORGE TANNER SAYS MANY OF THE RANCHING METHODS LONG-PRACTICED BY ADAMS ARE NOW BEING ADOPTED ON OTHER LANDS.
>>>TANNER: Over the last couple of decades, the Florida ranching situation is such that the landowners are becoming more and more aware of the cycle of the livestock market; of the value of the land. And they plan ahead. They're reducing inputs into the land. They're optimizing returns from the land. And overall, everything is benefiting. The intensity of management is down, and the landscape is doing quite well, by and large.
>>>AS ADAMS RANCH CATTLE APPROACH THE TIME WHEN THEY BECOME PART OF THE FOOD CHAIN, THEY ARE TRANSPORTED OUT OF FLORIDA. DR. GLEN HEMBRY SAYS THAT'S DONE THROUGHOUT THE INDUSTRY; THAT AT THIS POINT, CATTLE FATTEN UP BEST WHEN THEIR DIETS ARE CHANGED.
>>>DALE HEMBRY, UF ANIMAL NUTRITIONIST: From the standpoint of finishing cattle, none of our forages are really of the nutritional density, particularly energy density, to finish cattle appropriately for the type of beef that the American consumers prefer. They prefer, basically, a choice carcass; choice meat, and that requires a certain fat level distributed in the meat, and about the only way we can achieve that is to move these animals to an area where they can be finished on high energy diets such as grain diets that are; we encounter in the Texas panhandle, Oklahoma, Kansas, up through the Midwest, and in that area. One of the reasons that we don't finish cattle here is that we're in a grain deficit area, and it's really cheaper to truck the cattle, or move the cattle to the grain areas, rather than moving the grain into this area.
>>>HEMBRY SAYS THAT'S WHY GRAIN FED SO-CALLED WESTERN BEEF MAY HAVE ORIGINS ON FLORIDA LANDS SUCH AS THE BUD ADAMS RANCH. BUT AS MORE PEOPLE MOVE TO THE SUNSHINE STATE, LAND USE IS CHANGING. AS THE AMERICAN DREAM EXPANDS, BRINGING SUBDIVISIONS TO SOME AREAS WHERE CATTLE ONCE GRAZED, OTHER AGRICULTURAL LANDS ARE THE FOCUS OF RESTORATION PROGRAMS. PROGRAMS THAT RETURN SUCH LANDS TO NATURE. BUT THE BUD ADAMS RANCH PRESENTS A NATURAL ALTERNATIVE, FOR IN COOPERATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, THIS ENVIRO-RANCH SEEMS ALWAYS TO HAVE BEEN PART OF NATURE.
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>>>IMPACT... A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. IT'S PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.