Environmental Management

Deseret Cattle & Citrus runs the largest cow herd in the nation -- 44,000 cows and 1,400 bulls producing 33,000 calves a year weaned at an average 510 pounds. Owned by a related entity of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is a 60-year-old commercial operation in central Florida ranging over 295,000 acres. Deseret is known well for its production of high-quality calves.

It also is a showcase for environmental management. The ranch has been recognized for its work in Florida and was awarded a regional Environmental Stewardship Award in 2010. The award is overseen by the National Cattlemen's Foundation and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

"The key questions Deseret always asks are, 'Is it the right thing to do?' and 'Is it in the best long-term interest of the ranch and the region?' That's the essence of environmental stewardship," W. Michael Dennis, of BDA Environmental Consultants, wrote in support of the nomination of Deseret for the Stewardship Award.

From the ground, it's impossible to take in the full scope of Deseret Cattle & Citrus, operating outside St. Cloud, Fla., and a not-so-long stone's throw from Orlando and Walt Disney World.

Two-hundred miles of roads crisscross the ranch -- it's the same as a drive from Chicago to Indianapolis -- and 1,400 miles of fence -- a drive from Chicago to Miami. Its nearly 40 cowboys maintain the ranch's herd on 160,000 acres of warm-season pasture. That resource is divided into 13 operating units, each built around 3,500 cows (divided into about 20 herds) rotated among 50 pastures or more.

The ranch's income is diverse, coming from cattle and a quarter-million citrus trees. The land yields sod, fossilized seashells, and timber—pine, cypress and palm -- and supports a lease-hunting enterprise that harvests deer, quail, turkey and hogs. Profits from the operations are used to support the religious and humanitarian efforts of the church.

Plunked down in Wyoming, the scale of the cattle ranch alone would require high-level management expertise. But Deseret operates in anything but open spaces. It fills a large footprint in eastern Florida's crowded Flatwoods region. To its east, 450,000 people reside in a string of "Space Coast" communities along Florida's Atlantic shore. On the ranch's western side, the Orlando and Kissimmee-St. Cloud metropolitan areas are home to 2 million people.

The ranch adheres to principles of long-term sustainability and good stewardship. But general manager Erik Jacobsen figures he spends half his time on activities not directly related to ranch operations. It is a simple fact of life at Deseret Cattle & Citrus. That much land attracts lots of attention -- from nearly every surrounding interest.

"We try to be proactive," Jacobsen said. "We think long-term, maybe 50 to 100 years out. We believe good, long-term planning is critical to the future of the region and the ranch. Hopefully people will understand how critical big ranches are to maintaining open space."

The ranch's "multiple-use" philosophy of land management benefits both wildlife and cattle.

"Deseret's overarching goal," Jacobsen tells visitors, "is to be world-class in both cow-calf production and environmental stewardship. We believe the two work hand in hand."

The ranch has resisted selling land for development. But development has come to it. Orange and Osceola counties have map overlays designating portions of the ranch for future urban growth. Deseret lost through condemnation 3,000 acres for a future landfill.

The ranch often finds itself caught between urban planners and green planners. As opposed to developers, green planners see the ranch fitting nicely into the region's need for open spaces. But like developers, they also have thoughts on how this space might be managed.

Water is a point of tension. Regional water authorities have told central Florida communities that they must find new drinking water supplies from sources other than the Floridan Aquifer by 2013. The 500 billion gallons of water that fall over Deseret ranch during its brief, but "55-inch," rainy season looks darn appealing to community planners. They argue for expansion of the ranch's 4,000-acre Taylor Creek Reservoir to collect more of that rainfall. In another quarter, Deseret is challenged to protect an important source of water. The St. Johns River, at 310 miles, is the longest river in Florida. For 40 miles, it traces the eastern boundary of Deseret ranch. It is a slow-moving river, dropping only 30 feet along its length, so it is not quickly refreshed. As part of the ranch's work to preserve the quality of the St. Johns River, Deseret sold to Florida 16,000 acres of wetlands along more than 25 miles of the river. It is looking to exchange an additional 4,000 acres of sensitive land and 2,000 acres of flood easements from the headwaters of the St. Johns River for 2,000 acres of upland agricultural land.

To control the flow of ranch runoff into the St. Johns, Deseret voluntarily created retention ponds to catch storm runoff. They store water used to irrigate the ranch's citrus crops and absorb nutrients.

One retention pond is named the Jug Island Reservoir. It is a shallow-water, 500-acre reservoir. Studded with water-tolerant trees, small, grassy islands and open water, it is prime habitat for wading birds and other wildlife. That project earned Deseret the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture's Environmental Leadership Award for Water Quality.

Deseret's work with water is not outdone by its efforts to improve wildlife habitat. More than a third of the ranch's land is left as open water, wetlands and woodlands. Deseret has identified more than 380 species of birds, fish, reptiles, mammals and amphibians on its land, some listed as threatened or endangered.

Endangered wood storks benefit from a 40-acre rookery maintained by Deseret. It has become one of the largest and most consistent breeding locations for wood storks in Florida. It serves other listed birds, including the snowy egret, little blue herons, tricolored herons and white ibis.

"This is primarily a commercial cow-calf operation," said Brigham Mason, Deseret's full-time certified wildlife biologist, "but we have diversified uses for the property. We look for win-wins between different enterprises."

Deseret has blended an ever-improving forage base with adjacent stands of woodlands and wetlands, ringed by 40-foot protective buffers. The mix of habitat creates cover and food beneficial to both game and non-game wildlife.

One measure of the ranch's land-management success is in the rising number of game animals harvested by its hunt club members.

"The wildlife that is found here today isn't here in spite of what we do," Mason said. "It's here because of what we do."

The ranch's best management practices are written to work with its ranch wide conservation plan.

"We intend to continue ranching for a long time to come, and we anticipate that our stewardship will continue to benefit the wildlife in our region," Mason said.

(VM/CZ)

Copyright 2013 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.