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Highlands Today

Ag Agent Services County's Livestock Needs

Jasmina MeyerHighlands Today

Randy Gornto, a livestock agent for the Highlands County Cooperative Extension Service, often works with 4-H kids and their horses like "Cooper", a quarter house, who may have behavioral issues.

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By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: November 18, 2008

SEBRING - Highlands County is known for its citrus but many may not realize that it is big in beef production and dairy, too.

Like citrus, the county's other ag ventures are facing challenges from development pressures, environmental regulations and the need for better water management.

Randy Gornto, the new livestock agent for the Highlands County Cooperative Extension Service, is trying to ensure that these industries continue to benefit from the latest research needed to stay productive.

He described his role as livestock agent as the connection "between the University of Florida and the research being done there and the producers. And it goes both ways."

Gornto will be meeting soon with the 14-member Highlands County Livestock Advisory Committee, composed of livestock producers.

"They see the needs of their groupings, and their role is to give me direction on where I need to spend my time," he said. Gornto said he not only distributes the latest research from the university, but also passes on to researchers the specific needs farmers face in this area.

Dennis Coulter, who owns and runs Wabasso Road Dairy outside of Avon Park, where 2,000 dairy cows are milked daily, said research distributed by the extension service over the years has been a key factor in his farm surviving.

There were about 400 dairy farms in Florida when he got into the business about 30 years ago, compared to the 200 existing today, he said.

"We wouldn't be in business if we didn't get better all the time, if we didn't improve our production," he said. "We just couldn't exist with the production levels of 20 years ago, it wouldn't fit with the economics."

Fortunately, he said, research has kept pace with the need.

"Production for dairy cows in Florida and the nation as a whole has increased considerably and routinely over the past 30 years," he said. "We're getting almost twice as much milk per cow per day as when I started.

"And a big part of that is because of the land grant institutions like the University of Florida and its extension service. Certainly, their research into genetics and nutrition are the biggest things."

Gornto went through the 4-H and Future Farmers of America programs as he grew up on a cattle farm in Putnam County in northern Florida and went on to earn a degree in food resource economics and agricultural education from the University of Florida in 1982.

He sees a "night and day difference" between today's livestock industry and 35 years ago, when he was just starting high school and helping his family raise between 75 to 100 head of beef cattle.

"At that point, 35 years ago, you ran one cow-calf unit for every five acres," he said. "Now, we are running one cow-calf unit for every two acres.

"You have to be able to produce more pounds of beef per acre today, which means different types of grasses and feedstuffs to make that happen. It takes a lot more management for the grass and for the cattle herd."

While Highlands County is known for citrus, Gornto points out that it's also in the heart of Florida's beef industry.

"We sit fourth in the state, with just a bit over 100,000 head of beef cattle," he said. "If you look at Polk, Hardee, Highlands and Okeechobee counties, there are more than half a million head of beef cows."

For both beef and dairy cows, he said, Highlands County ranks third in the state.

Research on raising livestock is being conducted at the University of Florida's Research Education Center at Ona in neighboring Hardee County, Gornto noted.

"That puts it right in the middle of cow country and makes it very accessible to us here," he said.

Water is the most precious resource for the future of both agricultural and urban areas in Florida, Gornto said, and farmers are deeply involved in water conservation.

"Today's farmers are helping make that a better and a more plentiful resource," he said. Pilot projects are now being developed with farmers storing water on their lands and releasing it as needed by the water management districts.

Methods of water use and conservation are being developed, he said, "to make sure what we have coming off the ranches is as clean or cleaner than what comes on the ranches."

For example, he said, Lykes Brothers is running a pilot project in which water used there is filtered through wetlands before being returned to the supply canal from where it came. Testing has shown that the water going out has 70 percent less phosphorous than when it was drawn from the canal, he said.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Soil & Water Conservation district and the U.S. Department of Agriculture work together on such water improvement projects, he said.

"It takes several agencies to make that happen," Gornto said. "And that's a lot more that the rancher has to do today, that 30 years ago he didn't have to think about."

Ray Royce, executive director of the Heartland Agricultural Coalition, said Highlands County farmers have and will continue to depend on the extension service for the latest research needed to their operations viable.

"Ninety-nine percent of the people in agriculture want to stay in agriculture as long as they can be profitable in it," he said. He calls the work of extension agents like Gornto "our portal to a wide range of resources."

Six generations of his family have worked in agriculture in Florida, Gornto said, and he's ready to do all he can to help livestock producers in Highlands County remain successful.

"The strength of our economy is agriculture," he said. "Agriculture is the base of every economy. If you want to cause a revolution anywhere, just let the people get hungry."

Coulter said he and other farmers are still counting on future research and access to it from the extension service.

"I don't know that we'll ever get finished" with innovations, he said. "You're always adjusting and taking advantage of the new research as it becomes available."

FAST FACT

Highlands County is fourth in the state for beef production, with 100,000 heads of cattle.

Polk, Hardee, Highlands and Okeechobee counties collectively have more than half a million head of beef cows.

Source: Randy Gornto, Highlands County Extension Service Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com Source: Randy Gornto, Highlands County Extension Service

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