Florida: An Ideal Cattle StateFlorida State Live Stock Association
History
Florida: An Ideal Cattle State
Florida State Live Stock Association
Cattle -- Florida
I have spoken thus candidly because I feel that I am a friend among
friends, and because I have very much faith in the industry you
represent. If I were not so optimistic as to the future of the live
stock industry in Florida I should be afraid to lay bare any weak
factors that exist. I believe with Huxley in the wisdom of facing
things as they are, rather than indulging in make believe.
Perhaps it will be most helpful in discussing the forages adapted to
Florida to proceed from the viewpoint of the man starting a cattle
ranch. The basis, of course, of any profitable cattle ranch is permanent
pasturage, the cheapest of all feeds, and, to supplement this, a supply
of feed, which may be hay, ensilage, or in Southern Florida, green feed,
to bridge over the season of short pastures. If one is to produce highly
finished beef, grain feeds and other concentrates must be raised or
purchased.
In discussing pasturage it will be convenient to recognize three types
of lands, namely, piney woods, prairie, and mucks, realizing, of course,
that this is a very rough classification.
Piney Woods Lands.
In the piney woods the natural pasturage is composed mainly of broom
sedge and wire grasses. During the growing season, from spring till late
fall, these grasses furnish fair pasturage, but through the rest of the
year they merely enable animals to exist. What can be done towards
converting these poor native pastures into good permanent pastures?
There are three possibilities in the light of our present knowledge. On
better soils good Bermuda pastures can be developed, or where the lands
are moist, as on most flatwood areas, carpet grass may be used. On the
drier and poorer soils, Natal grass is the only one that has given much
success.
How can Bermuda or carpet grass pasture best be established? The sure
method is to stump your land and plow it, and then plant the Bermuda by
the vegetative method in spring, or any time thereafter in summer,
during the rainy season. At the McNeill station in Mississippi, located
on land much like that of the northern tier of counties in Florida, they
have developed the following method: Plow furrows about ten feet apart
between the stumps in spring, and stick in a root or sprig of Bermuda
about every ten feet. At McNeill it is found necessary to use a little
fertilizer to insure the growth of these Bermuda plants. During the
following winter the stumps are removed, and then in spring the land is
plowed and Lespedeza seed sown. Enough Bermuda has grown in the furrows
to insure a stand of Bermuda, and this is supplemented by the Lespedeza.
Indeed, the first season the Lespedeza will furnish more pasturage than
the Bermuda. Lespedeza is rather a tricky plant in Florida and is hardly
worth consideration except in the northern part of the State.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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