Carroll Brothers Nursery Carroll Brothers Nursery
Photograph by Doug Dodson
Dear Friends in Agriculture, It is my great pleasure to recognize the winners of the 2008 Commissioner’s Agricultural-Environmental Leadership Awards: Carroll Brothers Nursery in Clearwater and the Brock Family Farm in Monticello. This year’s winners have again been selected by an independent committee made up of representatives from environmental groups, agricultural groups, and government agencies. Nominees for the awards come from different parts of Florida’s agricultural industry, but they all share a commitment to protect and preserve Florida’s resources while continuing to provide agricultural products for our people. I congratulate the 2008 AgriculturalEnvironmental Leadership Award winners. This booklet gives a brief overview of their achievements. Sincerely, Charles H. Bronson Commissioner of Agriculture
1
Carroll Brothers Nursery
Clearwater, Florida
A
Although he’s been retired for years, Harmon Carroll still stays involved in the family business. Through the art of grafting, Carroll helps produce Florida-friendly gardenias for his sons, Bob and Richard Carroll, of Carroll Brothers Nursery. Using the nematode-resistant rootstock thunbergia, the nursery grows 10 hearty varieties of gardenias that thrive in Florida’s soil. These beautiful and fragrant plants are the only crop grown by the Carroll family at its 10-acre wholesale nursery in Clearwater. Today, Carroll Brothers is one of the largest wholesale nurseries in
3
Pinellas County, growing about 200,000 gardenia plants, making it the largest grower of grafted gardenias east of the Mississippi. The family business was established in 1950 in the once swampy outskirts of St. Petersburg. “I was working out in the nursery and a real-estate man came up and said we should buy a piece of land,” Harmon Carroll said. “I said, ‘Why? I haven’t got enough money to feed my face, much less buy a piece of property.’ He finally convinced me. I went right up to my knees in mud. I had to buy fill dirt to fill it in. Then we started picking up a little retail trade and from that point on we just kept on going. “Then we started on into the wholesale business, and my boy,
4
Bob, come home from the service and he wanted a job, so we
started the gardenia business,” Carroll said. “We just started with a small amount, and that first year was 4,000 and that was a big number. We grafted them at night and Saturdays and whenever we had spare time. Then they sold right away. They sold, sold. So we said, ‘man, that’s the thing, go for it.’” The nursery has been at the same 38th Avenue location for over 50 years. Today the retail store, managed by Richard Carroll, serves a loyal customer base. And while the city has built up around it, the nursery remains a hometown business offering a variety of services from newsletters to complimentary soil testing. In 1979 Carroll Brothers Nursery moved its production operation to the Gulf coast community of Clearwater, where it is managed by Bob Carroll. From the outset, the nursery drew most of its
5
irrigation water from wells on the property. But Pinellas grew into the state’s most densely populated county, and with the strain on the fresh water supply came salt water intrusion. The nursery saw the salt content of its wells rise, making it almost impossible to grow their trademark grafted gardenias. The well water was abandoned.
To find a new source of water for irrigation, the nursery connected to the Pinellas County reuse water system. But being dependent on recycled water exclusively came with its own set of problems. Reuse water from the county had inconsistent water pressure and quality that damaged the nursery’s watering systems. And the cost was prohibitive; Carroll Brothers Nursery required 18 million
6
gallons of water annually for irrigation. The price tag on that much water jumped 400 percent between 1991 and 2007. To be more efficient and reduce costs, the Carroll brothers began searching for irrigation alternatives. As one of the first in Florida to sign up with the state’s Best Management Practices for container nurseries, Carroll Brothers wanted a method that followed the BMPs while providing consistent irrigation. At that same time, the Florida West Coast Resource Conservation and Development Council (RC&D) and the Natural Resource and Conservation Service wanted to test new equipment on an actual working nursery that would instantly identify and address issues specific to growers in Florida. Carroll Brothers Nursery was a perfect site. “We at the Florida West Coast RC&D have been working with a program for helping growers adopt reclaimed water into their water irrigation schemes,” said Laura Morton, Resource,
7
Conservation and Development Coordinator with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. “Carroll Brothers Nursery is dealing with a lot of the issues on the front line that growers are already dealing with or will be dealing with. The Carroll brothers were willing to let us use them as a guinea pig for our automation and high-tech integration of these water sources, so we were able to test out some of the equipment and even some of our conceptual plans.” In 2006 the nursery opened its doors to the RC&D. To compare drip, overhead, and capillary mat systems, meters were installed to measure rain, pressure, volume and moisture. Data was constantly collected and transmitted via the internet to the RC&D website, allowing the nursery to get real-time feedback on its irrigation methods.
8
The research showed that, because of inconsistent water pressure, both overhead and drip tube irrigation had irregular watering patterns, with some plants were receiving two to three times more water than required. These methods also resulted in leaching of fertilizers and pesticides. The capillary mat system, or “cap mats,” however, had different results. Not only did the crops receive uniform watering, there was no leaching or off-site water and nutrient discharge. In fact, the nursery saw a 50 percent cut in fertilizer use. Water -- up to 2 1/2 gallons per square yard -- is captured and held within the fibers of the cap mat. Through osmosis, water is continually drawn up to the plants. Each rainfall allows the mats to replenish their water supply; in fact, a good rain could allow the grower to turn off the water for up to seven days.
9
Carroll Brothers Nursery also began to see other benefits: to maximize land use, cap mats allow the nursery to put plants closer together. Coupled with consistent irrigation, this has led to better plant quality and improved production time. The cap mats have also reduced the amount of water pressure needed for irrigation which reduces the energy costs for pumping. “I water three times a day on the Aquamats, two minutes at a time, and saving 90 percent of my water,” Bob Carroll said. “Production-wise, it grows. I can move the crop out six to eight
10
weeks faster. And I don’t have to spray as often. There’s no overhead water. Everything is from the capillary, working up from the bottom. It’s a different way of growing, but it works and you save water.” Today, Carroll Brothers Nursery is developing innovative plans to meet future challenges. Seeing the benefits of the data collection system installed by RC&D, Carroll Brothers now employs a more sophisticated system. Using sensors in the plants, a computer connects the entire operation to a central control system, monitors the plants’ needs, and automatically irrigates them when necessary. “We’re kind of a work in progress,” Richard Carroll said. “What I’d like to implement is another water source. And one of the easiest and the cheapest would be to recapture rainwater and use it.”
11
Carroll Family Photograph
Coming off the greenhouses’ roofs, rainwater will be collected in cisterns built under the greenhouses. “We have a one-quarter acre greenhouse out there now, which I want to expand to about a three-quarter acre house,” he said. “And by doing that three-quarter acre it would supply enough water to actually water that nursery for almost a year.” Carroll Brother Nursery is also working on innovative growing techniques to produce its gardenias more efficiently. An automated grafting machine is being developed by the nursery to increase production of its popular crop. Carroll Brother Nursery is an older nursery, but by grafting new techniques to traditional methods, it is developing new ways to help growers across the state become more efficient. By using less water, fertilizer, pesticide and energy, Carroll Brothers is demonstrating that sustainable agriculture can grow and thrive in Florida.
12
Photograph by Doug Dodson
Brock Family Farm
Monticello, Florida
O
On the Brock Family Farm, located in Jefferson County, conservation is more than just a smart practice, it’s a necessity. In this quiet north Florida countryside the landscape that makes the area so beautiful also makes it a challenge to farm. These rolling hills and fine sandy soil allow a significant amount of surface water runoff -- water that could be used to irrigate crops. Year after year, this runoff causes soil erosion, carrying away the precious top soil. No one understands this more than Gene and Kirk Brock.
15
Gene Brock knows these fields. He knows the crops and their yields, and how the weather was in years past. It’s not surprising; he’s been farming this land for six decades. “I planted my daddy’s first corn crop at this location with a mule,” Gene Brock said. “And after three or four days getting in shape for that much walking in plowed dirt, I got to where I could actually plant seven acres in a whole sunup-to-sundown day with one mule and a planter, one-row planter. Nowadays, with the able equipment, I would say Kirk could plant 15 acres in one hour.” Gene’s son, Kirk, grew up working on the Brock Family Farm through high school. But after studying agriculture at the University of Florida, Kirk wanted to try his hand in the outside world. In 2000
16
Kirk realized where he truly wanted to be, and came home to work the farm. It’s here that he is raising his family, living in the same house his grandmother did. More than just family, Gene and Kirk are also great friends and business partners. Each year they rotate their crops between corn, soybeans, peanuts and cotton. Today, the Brock family is farming 1,050 acres, some of which they own, the rest leased from a nearby plantation. In today’s market, it is difficult for a small family farm to be successful. But the Brocks take it all in stride. With their imagination, resourcefulness, and jack-of-all-trades ability, the Brocks do what it takes to succeed. Instead of buying a new combine to handle their specific needs, they modified their old one to get the job done. Kirk built an eight-row cover crop roller to make for easier planting into the thick rye. And instead of driving into town to buy a new part when something breaks, they fix the broken one.
17
The Brocks know that in farming the future brings change. Gene’s vast knowledge and experience, coupled with Kirk’s education with soil science and new agricultural techniques, gives this partnership the confidence and ability to adopt innovative methods. “Historically, with conventional farming, probably the first practice people did to deal with the hills and the water was contour farming where you’re running the rows around the hills
to try to help hold the water up on the hills and decrease your slope,” Kirk Brock said. “You also had terraces and waterways that people implemented. Even back in the 1930s, the federal government came through this area to help people build terraces to control the water. So it’s been a long process of attempting to deal with Mother Nature. We found that those terrace strategies were not working for this area. So we’ve transitioned to a no-till
18
farming, heavy residue, cover crops, and a minimum disturbance of the soil seems to be working wonders for us.” Continued Kirk, “We chose the cereal rye for a cover crop, because it produces a tremendous amount of biomass to, to enrich the soil. These soils of the southeastern United States are highly weathered soils. So we’re attempting to reverse that process and increase the organic matter content. Also, any time you increase the organic matter content, you have more nutrient retention and more water retention and it’s just easier to grow a crop.” High-residue farming begins with planting a cover crop in the winter; for the Brock family this crop is cereal rye. In the spring, when the mature rye reaches about five or six feet, it’s rolled
19
down flat with a chopper-roller and left in the fields. Next the cash crops -- corn, soybeans, peanuts and cotton -- are planted in small trough, disturbing the soil as little as possible. The flattened cover crop now serves a number of purposes. As it decomposes, the nutrients from the rye enrich the soil making it healthier and more productive; this richer soil provides nourishment for the cash crops; which, in turn increases their quality and profitability. As it mats down, the rye acts as a dam that decreases water runoff and any resulting soil erosion. Retaining this water also means more will be absorbed into the ground nourishing the growing crops. As mulch, it inhibits evaporation, holding the moisture in; this keeps the ground cooler, putting less stress on the crops.
20
High-residue farming has decreased the amount of insecticides and herbicides the Brocks use and provides increased habitat for many types of wildlife, from the microscopic to birds and small mammals. To examine firsthand the health and growth rate of the cash crop’s root system, the Brocks do random pit sampling each year. The roots of the cover crop penetrate the subsoil taking nutrients deeper into the thick clay soil of North Florida. This not only loosens and aerates the soil, but when the roots decompose, they give the root systems of the cash crop channels that allow them to grow deeper into the soil. Meticulous record keeping on data ranging from soil sampling to crop yields has helped improved the productivity and profitability of the farm. As leaders in the agricultural community, the Brocks have gone beyond adopting innovative conservation practices; they actively share what they’ve learned with other producers.
21
“I feel like farmers should be involved with each other and communicate with one another throughout their community, their state, and their area to further their education about what’s working and problems that some farmers may have,” Kirk said. With a goal of making the land more productive with fewer man-made inputs, Kirk has seen firsthand the benefits of letting nature do the work. The high-residue, no-till method has helped level out the extreme fluxuation in yields from year to year caused by drought and disease, and he encourages other farmers to look into this farming approach. “I love farming,” Kirk said. “You know, to go out there and plant a crop and nurture it and see it through harvest. I hope I get to physically
22
be able to farm the rest of my life. It’s fun and challenging. It’s like a race team; you don’t ever get to where you want to be. It’s a weekly challenge of improving where you’re going.” Said Gene: “I’ve actually been working, either gathering eggs or something, since I was four years old on the farm. And I wouldn’t really trade it for anything. It’s been a challenge, though. You’ve just got to love it. You believe in the future of farming by the works that have been already done. And of course there is always room for change. There’s a lot of improvement out there, too. I don’t really miss the past; I’m just glad I lived in it.”
23
Previous Winners 2007 Butler Oaks Farm - Lorida Gwinn Brothers Farm - McAlpin Buck Island Ranch - Lake Placid Fraleigh Nursery - Madison 2006 Tampa Wholesale Nursery - Dover Riverview Flower Farm - Riverview Lightsey Cattle Company - Lake Wales 2005 Kerry’s Bromeliad Nursury - Homestead Larson Dairy, Inc. - Okeechobee Richard N. Raid, Ph.D. - Royal Palm Beach 2004 Blue Heron Groves - Lakeland M&B Products, Inc. - Tampa McArthur Farms, Inc. - Port St. Lucie 2003 Williamson Cattle Company - Okeechobee Sun City Tree Farm - Ruskin Aquatica Tropicals, Inc. - Plant City 2002 Holloway Irrigation Systems - Leesburg Daniel A. Botts - Orlando Sanwa Growers, Inc. - Wimauma 2001 Carlton 2x4 Ranch - Arcadia Barthle Brothers Ranch - San Antonio
2000 Pacific Tomato Growers Ltd. - Palmetto Evans Properties, Inc. - Vero Beach 1999 Two Rivers Ranch, Inc. - Thonotosassa Lykes Bros., Inc. - Okeechobee Suwannee Farms - O’Brien 1998 Longino Ranch - Arcadia V&W Farms - Avon Park 1997 Anclote River Ranch - Odessa 1996 Edward “Jack” Campbell- Homestead Citrus World, Inc. - Lake Wales Ekkwill Waterlife Resources - Gibsonton 1995 Schroeder Manatee Ranch - Bradenton Burt McKee - Tampa Davie Dairy, Inc. - Okeechobee O.F. Nelson and Sons Nursery - Apopka Bright Hour Ranch - Arcadia Deseret Ranches of Florida - St. Cloud Fulford Farms, Inc. - Monticello
Dear Friends in Agriculture, It is my great pleasure to recognize the winners of the 2008 Commissioner’s Agricultural-Environmental Leadership Awards: Carroll Brothers Nursery in Clearwater and the Brock Family Farm in Monticello. This year’s winners have again been selected by an independent committee made up of representatives from environmental groups, agricultural groups, and government agencies. Nominees for the awards come from different parts of Florida’s agricultural industry, but they all share a commitment to protect and preserve Florida’s resources while continuing to provide agricultural products for our people. I congratulate the 2008 AgriculturalEnvironmental Leadership Award winners. This booklet gives a brief overview of their achievements. Sincerely, Charles H. Bronson Commissioner of Agriculture
1
Carroll Brothers Nursery
Clearwater, Florida
A
Although he’s been retired for years, Harmon Carroll still stays involved in the family business. Through the art of grafting, Carroll helps produce Florida-friendly gardenias for his sons, Bob and Richard Carroll, of Carroll Brothers Nursery. Using the nematode-resistant rootstock thunbergia, the nursery grows 10 hearty varieties of gardenias that thrive in Florida’s soil. These beautiful and fragrant plants are the only crop grown by the Carroll family at its 10-acre wholesale nursery in Clearwater. Today, Carroll Brothers is one of the largest wholesale nurseries in
3
Pinellas County, growing about 200,000 gardenia plants, making it the largest grower of grafted gardenias east of the Mississippi. The family business was established in 1950 in the once swampy outskirts of St. Petersburg. “I was working out in the nursery and a real-estate man came up and said we should buy a piece of land,” Harmon Carroll said. “I said, ‘Why? I haven’t got enough money to feed my face, much less buy a piece of property.’ He finally convinced me. I went right up to my knees in mud. I had to buy fill dirt to fill it in. Then we started picking up a little retail trade and from that point on we just kept on going. “Then we started on into the wholesale business, and my boy,
4
Bob, come home from the service and he wanted a job, so we
started the gardenia business,” Carroll said. “We just started with a small amount, and that first year was 4,000 and that was a big number. We grafted them at night and Saturdays and whenever we had spare time. Then they sold right away. They sold, sold. So we said, ‘man, that’s the thing, go for it.’” The nursery has been at the same 38th Avenue location for over 50 years. Today the retail store, managed by Richard Carroll, serves a loyal customer base. And while the city has built up around it, the nursery remains a hometown business offering a variety of services from newsletters to complimentary soil testing. In 1979 Carroll Brothers Nursery moved its production operation to the Gulf coast community of Clearwater, where it is managed by Bob Carroll. From the outset, the nursery drew most of its
5
irrigation water from wells on the property. But Pinellas grew into the state’s most densely populated county, and with the strain on the fresh water supply came salt water intrusion. The nursery saw the salt content of its wells rise, making it almost impossible to grow their trademark grafted gardenias. The well water was abandoned.
To find a new source of water for irrigation, the nursery connected to the Pinellas County reuse water system. But being dependent on recycled water exclusively came with its own set of problems. Reuse water from the county had inconsistent water pressure and quality that damaged the nursery’s watering systems. And the cost was prohibitive; Carroll Brothers Nursery required 18 million
6
gallons of water annually for irrigation. The price tag on that much water jumped 400 percent between 1991 and 2007. To be more efficient and reduce costs, the Carroll brothers began searching for irrigation alternatives. As one of the first in Florida to sign up with the state’s Best Management Practices for container nurseries, Carroll Brothers wanted a method that followed the BMPs while providing consistent irrigation. At that same time, the Florida West Coast Resource Conservation and Development Council (RC&D) and the Natural Resource and Conservation Service wanted to test new equipment on an actual working nursery that would instantly identify and address issues specific to growers in Florida. Carroll Brothers Nursery was a perfect site. “We at the Florida West Coast RC&D have been working with a program for helping growers adopt reclaimed water into their water irrigation schemes,” said Laura Morton, Resource,
7
Conservation and Development Coordinator with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. “Carroll Brothers Nursery is dealing with a lot of the issues on the front line that growers are already dealing with or will be dealing with. The Carroll brothers were willing to let us use them as a guinea pig for our automation and high-tech integration of these water sources, so we were able to test out some of the equipment and even some of our conceptual plans.” In 2006 the nursery opened its doors to the RC&D. To compare drip, overhead, and capillary mat systems, meters were installed to measure rain, pressure, volume and moisture. Data was constantly collected and transmitted via the internet to the RC&D website, allowing the nursery to get real-time feedback on its irrigation methods.
8
The research showed that, because of inconsistent water pressure, both overhead and drip tube irrigation had irregular watering patterns, with some plants were receiving two to three times more water than required. These methods also resulted in leaching of fertilizers and pesticides. The capillary mat system, or “cap mats,” however, had different results. Not only did the crops receive uniform watering, there was no leaching or off-site water and nutrient discharge. In fact, the nursery saw a 50 percent cut in fertilizer use. Water -- up to 2 1/2 gallons per square yard -- is captured and held within the fibers of the cap mat. Through osmosis, water is continually drawn up to the plants. Each rainfall allows the mats to replenish their water supply; in fact, a good rain could allow the grower to turn off the water for up to seven days.
9
Carroll Brothers Nursery also began to see other benefits: to maximize land use, cap mats allow the nursery to put plants closer together. Coupled with consistent irrigation, this has led to better plant quality and improved production time. The cap mats have also reduced the amount of water pressure needed for irrigation which reduces the energy costs for pumping. “I water three times a day on the Aquamats, two minutes at a time, and saving 90 percent of my water,” Bob Carroll said. “Production-wise, it grows. I can move the crop out six to eight
10
weeks faster. And I don’t have to spray as often. There’s no overhead water. Everything is from the capillary, working up from the bottom. It’s a different way of growing, but it works and you save water.” Today, Carroll Brothers Nursery is developing innovative plans to meet future challenges. Seeing the benefits of the data collection system installed by RC&D, Carroll Brothers now employs a more sophisticated system. Using sensors in the plants, a computer connects the entire operation to a central control system, monitors the plants’ needs, and automatically irrigates them when necessary. “We’re kind of a work in progress,” Richard Carroll said. “What I’d like to implement is another water source. And one of the easiest and the cheapest would be to recapture rainwater and use it.”
11
Carroll Family Photograph
Coming off the greenhouses’ roofs, rainwater will be collected in cisterns built under the greenhouses. “We have a one-quarter acre greenhouse out there now, which I want to expand to about a three-quarter acre house,” he said. “And by doing that three-quarter acre it would supply enough water to actually water that nursery for almost a year.” Carroll Brother Nursery is also working on innovative growing techniques to produce its gardenias more efficiently. An automated grafting machine is being developed by the nursery to increase production of its popular crop. Carroll Brother Nursery is an older nursery, but by grafting new techniques to traditional methods, it is developing new ways to help growers across the state become more efficient. By using less water, fertilizer, pesticide and energy, Carroll Brothers is demonstrating that sustainable agriculture can grow and thrive in Florida.
12
Photograph by Doug Dodson
Brock Family Farm
Monticello, Florida
O
On the Brock Family Farm, located in Jefferson County, conservation is more than just a smart practice, it’s a necessity. In this quiet north Florida countryside the landscape that makes the area so beautiful also makes it a challenge to farm. These rolling hills and fine sandy soil allow a significant amount of surface water runoff -- water that could be used to irrigate crops. Year after year, this runoff causes soil erosion, carrying away the precious top soil. No one understands this more than Gene and Kirk Brock.
15
Gene Brock knows these fields. He knows the crops and their yields, and how the weather was in years past. It’s not surprising; he’s been farming this land for six decades. “I planted my daddy’s first corn crop at this location with a mule,” Gene Brock said. “And after three or four days getting in shape for that much walking in plowed dirt, I got to where I could actually plant seven acres in a whole sunup-to-sundown day with one mule and a planter, one-row planter. Nowadays, with the able equipment, I would say Kirk could plant 15 acres in one hour.” Gene’s son, Kirk, grew up working on the Brock Family Farm through high school. But after studying agriculture at the University of Florida, Kirk wanted to try his hand in the outside world. In 2000
16
Kirk realized where he truly wanted to be, and came home to work the farm. It’s here that he is raising his family, living in the same house his grandmother did. More than just family, Gene and Kirk are also great friends and business partners. Each year they rotate their crops between corn, soybeans, peanuts and cotton. Today, the Brock family is farming 1,050 acres, some of which they own, the rest leased from a nearby plantation. In today’s market, it is difficult for a small family farm to be successful. But the Brocks take it all in stride. With their imagination, resourcefulness, and jack-of-all-trades ability, the Brocks do what it takes to succeed. Instead of buying a new combine to handle their specific needs, they modified their old one to get the job done. Kirk built an eight-row cover crop roller to make for easier planting into the thick rye. And instead of driving into town to buy a new part when something breaks, they fix the broken one.
17
The Brocks know that in farming the future brings change. Gene’s vast knowledge and experience, coupled with Kirk’s education with soil science and new agricultural techniques, gives this partnership the confidence and ability to adopt innovative methods. “Historically, with conventional farming, probably the first practice people did to deal with the hills and the water was contour farming where you’re running the rows around the hills
to try to help hold the water up on the hills and decrease your slope,” Kirk Brock said. “You also had terraces and waterways that people implemented. Even back in the 1930s, the federal government came through this area to help people build terraces to control the water. So it’s been a long process of attempting to deal with Mother Nature. We found that those terrace strategies were not working for this area. So we’ve transitioned to a no-till
18
farming, heavy residue, cover crops, and a minimum disturbance of the soil seems to be working wonders for us.” Continued Kirk, “We chose the cereal rye for a cover crop, because it produces a tremendous amount of biomass to, to enrich the soil. These soils of the southeastern United States are highly weathered soils. So we’re attempting to reverse that process and increase the organic matter content. Also, any time you increase the organic matter content, you have more nutrient retention and more water retention and it’s just easier to grow a crop.” High-residue farming begins with planting a cover crop in the winter; for the Brock family this crop is cereal rye. In the spring, when the mature rye reaches about five or six feet, it’s rolled
19
down flat with a chopper-roller and left in the fields. Next the cash crops -- corn, soybeans, peanuts and cotton -- are planted in small trough, disturbing the soil as little as possible. The flattened cover crop now serves a number of purposes. As it decomposes, the nutrients from the rye enrich the soil making it healthier and more productive; this richer soil provides nourishment for the cash crops; which, in turn increases their quality and profitability. As it mats down, the rye acts as a dam that decreases water runoff and any resulting soil erosion. Retaining this water also means more will be absorbed into the ground nourishing the growing crops. As mulch, it inhibits evaporation, holding the moisture in; this keeps the ground cooler, putting less stress on the crops.
20
High-residue farming has decreased the amount of insecticides and herbicides the Brocks use and provides increased habitat for many types of wildlife, from the microscopic to birds and small mammals. To examine firsthand the health and growth rate of the cash crop’s root system, the Brocks do random pit sampling each year. The roots of the cover crop penetrate the subsoil taking nutrients deeper into the thick clay soil of North Florida. This not only loosens and aerates the soil, but when the roots decompose, they give the root systems of the cash crop channels that allow them to grow deeper into the soil. Meticulous record keeping on data ranging from soil sampling to crop yields has helped improved the productivity and profitability of the farm. As leaders in the agricultural community, the Brocks have gone beyond adopting innovative conservation practices; they actively share what they’ve learned with other producers.
21
“I feel like farmers should be involved with each other and communicate with one another throughout their community, their state, and their area to further their education about what’s working and problems that some farmers may have,” Kirk said. With a goal of making the land more productive with fewer man-made inputs, Kirk has seen firsthand the benefits of letting nature do the work. The high-residue, no-till method has helped level out the extreme fluxuation in yields from year to year caused by drought and disease, and he encourages other farmers to look into this farming approach. “I love farming,” Kirk said. “You know, to go out there and plant a crop and nurture it and see it through harvest. I hope I get to physically
22
be able to farm the rest of my life. It’s fun and challenging. It’s like a race team; you don’t ever get to where you want to be. It’s a weekly challenge of improving where you’re going.” Said Gene: “I’ve actually been working, either gathering eggs or something, since I was four years old on the farm. And I wouldn’t really trade it for anything. It’s been a challenge, though. You’ve just got to love it. You believe in the future of farming by the works that have been already done. And of course there is always room for change. There’s a lot of improvement out there, too. I don’t really miss the past; I’m just glad I lived in it.”
23
Previous Winners 2007 Butler Oaks Farm - Lorida Gwinn Brothers Farm - McAlpin Buck Island Ranch - Lake Placid Fraleigh Nursery - Madison 2006 Tampa Wholesale Nursery - Dover Riverview Flower Farm - Riverview Lightsey Cattle Company - Lake Wales 2005 Kerry’s Bromeliad Nursury - Homestead Larson Dairy, Inc. - Okeechobee Richard N. Raid, Ph.D. - Royal Palm Beach 2004 Blue Heron Groves - Lakeland M&B Products, Inc. - Tampa McArthur Farms, Inc. - Port St. Lucie 2003 Williamson Cattle Company - Okeechobee Sun City Tree Farm - Ruskin Aquatica Tropicals, Inc. - Plant City 2002 Holloway Irrigation Systems - Leesburg Daniel A. Botts - Orlando Sanwa Growers, Inc. - Wimauma 2001 Carlton 2x4 Ranch - Arcadia Barthle Brothers Ranch - San Antonio
2000 Pacific Tomato Growers Ltd. - Palmetto Evans Properties, Inc. - Vero Beach 1999 Two Rivers Ranch, Inc. - Thonotosassa Lykes Bros., Inc. - Okeechobee Suwannee Farms - O’Brien 1998 Longino Ranch - Arcadia V&W Farms - Avon Park 1997 Anclote River Ranch - Odessa 1996 Edward “Jack” Campbell- Homestead Citrus World, Inc. - Lake Wales Ekkwill Waterlife Resources - Gibsonton 1995 Schroeder Manatee Ranch - Bradenton Burt McKee - Tampa Davie Dairy, Inc. - Okeechobee O.F. Nelson and Sons Nursery - Apopka Bright Hour Ranch - Arcadia Deseret Ranches of Florida - St. Cloud Fulford Farms, Inc. - Monticello
