Day 4

For Shana Zuehlke of Britton, "Seeing an alligator farm was so interesting. I’m very familiar with beef production but never really thought about how to raise an alligator for meat, hide and all the rest. The Tillmans said nothing is wasted. They have the process running like a well-oiled machine.”

Genie Tillman of Parker Island Gator Farm at Lake Placid told the SDARL alumni group that she didn’t want to get in the gator business, but her husband did. “And as a good Southern wife, all I could say was, ’Yes, dear.’"

That was 36 years ago and thousands of gators ago. Joe Tillman used to poach alligators and eventually decided to start raising them. They started with 25 animals and now have 11,000. Their family has eight farms with their children joining in the family business. Joe has had some health problems. At age 79, he is very thankful that all his children live with 30 miles. The couple’s son Vance helps with the business. Parker Island Gator Farm breeds gators, hatches thousands of little gators from eggs and raises the critters until market size of 4 to 5 feet. 

The babies are kept in 87-degree heated rooms and fed a “gator chow” mix with 65 % protein in the early stage of their life. As the gators grow, they move to larger rooms and are fed ground up fish parts. A group of breeding critters are kept in a fenced in area with a pond. Genie says the paperwork is the hardest of the operation as she writes everything in longhand.

Of the 12,129 eggs they put in the incubator last year, only 697 died. 

Genie said the animals are processed by their family and salted. Then they go to the tannery where they can be polished and dyed any colors.

Last year, 2000 hides were processed. Those gators 7-foot-long are paid $7 a foot and those 9 feet long are paid $9 a foot. 

It is illegal in Florida to kill an alligator unless you have a permit.

Todd Sanderson of Elkton said, “The sight of 1,400 alligators all in one pen was impressive. I liked that it was a family business.” We were told, “Remember, the gator is more afraid of you than you are of the gator. I just hope the gator remembers,” Don Norton, SDARL CEO. 

The SDARL members enjoyed cooked gator that night, grilled with the Cajun seasoning. 

Marketing Citrus

A unique group leads the marketing of citrus products in Florida. The 9-member Florida Citrus Commission is the governing board of the Florida Department of Citrus, an executive agency of the Florida government charged with the marketing, research and regulation of the Florida citrus industry. 

LeAnna Himrod, Communications Manager for the group, said the commission has a budget of $7.5 million just for marketing for the citrus industry. Funds come from the grower tax assessment generated by assessing $.07 per box of processed oranges, processed grapefruit, fresh grapefruit and all specialty citrus. 

The group doesn’t work for these businesses but alongside of them: Florida’s Natural, Tropicana, Minute Maid and Simply Orange. The group acts proactively to get ahead of potential problems. Surveys show 9 out of 10 families feel good about serving 100 percent Florida orange juice. The social media campaigns target the millennial Moms, those born from 1980 to 1995. They have a purchasing power of $200 million a year. The commission staff monitors news sources and prepare a response, aligning with experts and influencers. It’s hard to track the success of the program. 

Jon Nelson said, “Visiting with people in the different areas has illustrated the similarities we face in agriculture. When we were at the gator farm, Genie told us the price for gator skins was half of what it used to be, but she was sure the price would eventually come back up. In all ag, we are ‘price takers’ and face similar issues.”

Citrus issues are critical to the area. The challenges in the citrus business will be shared in the next installment of the blog.

Day 2 and Day 3

Continuation from Day 2: 

Stephen Basore provided a fascinating look into how lettuce gets from the field to boxes shipped to retailers. TKM Bengard Farms produce company is family owned. The father came to Florida after raising onions in Michigan in "muck" soil. The area around Lake Okeechobee is uniquely suited to raising lettuce with soil almost like rich black gold. Stephen is one of six brothers who run the company at Belle Glade.

Food safety is important as the family follows standards but goes above and beyond because they want to have satisfied customers. Everything is tracked through the system for food safety.

The crews can handle 500 acres of lettuce in a day. Fifteen harvest crews will go out to cover three locations. The lettuce is cut in the field, brought back to the plant where the produce is prepared for shipping. All the product is handled quickly to preserve quality. The last step before shipping is putting the boxes in a container where the air is sucked out to cool down the greens and then nitrogen gas is used to surround the boxes to help keep the product fresh. After the boxes are wrapped in plastic, they are put in massive coolers where the boxes wait to be loaded onto trucks for markets. Nearly 100 million lbs. of iceberg lettuce goes to chain grocery stores east of the Mississippi River. All is contracted. Iceberg lettuce makes up 60 percent of the product produced. They also grow romaine and spring mix leafy greens for bagged salads. 

Fields have produced record yields with trucks filled and leaving the field every 12 to 15 minutes. In an average year, it would be 25 minutes. The edges of the fields are netted to keep amphibians out of the fields. "No one wants to find a frog in the middle of their head of lettuce," Stephen said.

The company owns 60 percent of the land and will rotate to sugar cane after 4 or 5 years of lettuce production. They lease land from local farmers for $300 an acre. Land costs $10,000 an acre to buy. The soil holds a lot of moisture and so ditches of water around the fields are kept filled with water to provide needed moisture. The company is the largest sweet corn producer in the U.S and provides product around Memorial Day.

"Give me a bottle of ranch dressing and let me sit in the field and I'd be in heaven," Cathy Nelson of Lake Preston said when sampling some of the romaine and iceberg lettuce straight from the field. The group agreed the fresh flavor was overwhelming.

Day 3: 

An early morning start got the SDARL alumni group to Parkland, FL, for the Loxahatchee and Everglades airboat experience. Guide Matt settled the 12 of us on the boat and expertly showed us the waterways and wildlife. Temperatures were in the 50s so the alligators were mostly sunning themselves on the banks of the waterways. We saw herons, osprey, egrets and eagles along with keeping a close eye out for gators. We saw some about 2 feet long and other 6-foot long. Matt explained that alligators want to be left alone and will only attack if stepped on or if someone is bothering their nest. 

Matt said the gators mostly eat fish and small mammals. They get few diseases. There are about 1.3 million wild alligators in Florida (one for every 15 residents!) and he explained the procedures for getting the limited number of hunting permits. Gators leave the nest at about 2 to 3 years of age. Those that are 7-foot-long are 8 to 13 years old which is mating age. Only about 10 percent of the 30 to 40 eggs laid by the female make it to adulthood. 

All arrived back on shore and agreed it was a great way to start the day.

Brad Sanderson of Lake Preston said, “Being able to see and actually ride through a part of the Everglades and experience the natural environment made me appreciate its uniqueness.”

Unique water project

Noah Handley and Mallory Dimmitt jumped on the bus with the group at Nicodemus Lakeport Gate, about 30 minutes from Clewiston, FL. They explained the Nicodemus Project, managed by the Lykes Bros. Inc. which provides for excess water storage from Lake Okeechobee. It has 15,859 acres and has a project capacity of 11 billion gallons of water. It has been operating for three years. It is the largest wetlands restoration project in the world. 

The water is drained into this area to keep the water from going into the estuaries to the east and west of Lake Okeechobee. There are eight berms and 8 miles of canals. It can lift the water 8 feet back into the lake or into the Caloosahatchee River. It is meant to handle the excessive rains that sometimes occur in Florida. One year the area had 69 inches of rain. 

The annual lease paid by the state is $2 million with a contract for 8 years. While there is water on the land, it continues to be used for hunting wildlife and for grazing cattle. If the state decides it no longer wants to fund the project, the land can be returned to its original use. 

About the Lykes: Dr. Howell Tyson Lykes gave up the practice of medicine to take over his family's 500-acre farm in rural Hernando County, where he engaged in citrus growing and cattle ranching, including the export of cattle to Cuba. Dr. Lykes moved his family to Tampa in 1895 to focus on the cattle trade and launch his seven sons into the business world. In 1900 the older boys opened an office in Havana, Cuba, doing business as Lykes Brothers. All the brothers eventually joined the family operations. Mallory is part of the family and is the Vice President of Strategic Development and Business Relations. It is a privately held, family-owned and managed business that includes cattle, citrus, farming, forestry, land and water resources and recreational hunting. What began as a 500-acre operation near Brooksville, FL, has grown to more than 610,000 acres in two states.

The bus drove along some of the berms to provide the group with a feel for the scope of the project. Noah, Mallory and Derrick explained the project is managed by one person as the gates can be run remotely on an iPad. Derrick checks the berms for disturbances. He said gopher tortoises can dig into the berms and cause damage. 

Gators up close

The Parker Island Gator Farm near Lake Placid, FL was the last stop for the day. The blog will continue with stories of the group’s closeup and personal experiences with gators.   

Day 2

Challenges facing agriculture in Florida were explained through speakers and tours on Jan. 30. 

Florida agriculture supports 1.4 million jobs and generates a $100 billion in economic impact on the state. They are No.1 in a production of sugar cane, citrus, sweet corn and winter leaf crops and No. 2 in vegetables. 

The Belle Glade Everglades Research and Education Center began in 1922 as a way to help farmers as several minor nutrients were missing or were too low in the soil leading to crop failures. The deficiencies in the low-quality feed impacted the health of cattle and dairy cows resulting in low calf survival.

Dr. Gregg Nuessly took over in 2014. They have a 740-acre farm and 60 buildings. The scientists have bred new cultivars of celery and sweet corn that will grow well in southern Florida. The soil type is critical for the successful development of the vegetable industry that thrives in the areas. 

"We don't have a lot of bugs, but we have a lot of diseases," Nuessly told our group soils are low in copper and other nutrients. Growers are required to take soil samples and are required to follow recommendation for improvements to fulfill contracts.

Barbara Miedema, VP of Public Affairs and Communications for the Sugar Cane Growers Coop, explained some of the issues sugar cane growers face as far as regulations. After people settled in southern Florida, the value of draining the swamp was recognized and farming flourished. Then the environmental movement started questioning if practices were good for the environment. Regional water management districts were set up across 16 counties. They were given regulatory powers. This encompasses a huge land mass with 8 million people in the area from Orlando to the Florida Keys. 

Management of water is a huge issue. Barbara explained that sugar cane growers are required to pay a $25 per-acre, per-year Everglades Privilege Tax. The tax is aimed at funding public works projects. Areas are set aside to clean phosphorous out water as it slowly drains toward Everglades National Park. Rains dump a lot of water on the state. Since the area is extremely flat and has little slope, the water needs to be directed away from homes and farms.  

Barbara said the levels of phosphorus have achieved the level of 10 ppb through land and concentration reductions. "We've chased every molecule of phosphorus we could find," she said. One publication noted this would be ¼ teaspoon in an Olympic size swimming pool. She advised the group to stay proactive to work together on issues of mutual importance and not to pit one farm group against another. Share information so all can be successful.  

 

Off to the fields!

Barbara took the group to see sugar cane being harvested in fields with custom-made harvesters that cost $800,000. A controlled burn first eliminates excess residue. The truckloads of the cane are hauled to the processing plant where the sugar is released from the fiber, much like soap from a sponge. This site generates about 400,000 tons of raw sugar each year. That is taken via a barge to be processed in Baltimore, Maryland or Yonkers, NY. This sugar is sold to industrial suppliers located in those areas. 

SDARL graduate Jon Nelson was impressed by the coordination of the work that continues seven days a week from sunrise to sunset in the fields and the plant that runs 24 hours a day, with the harvest season lasting 150 days out of a year. 

Stephen Basore and Toby Basore of TKM Bengard Farms of Belle Glade provided a fascinating look into how lettuce gets from the field to boxes shipped to retailers. The blog will share more on that in the next installment.