THE AMERICAN' SOCIETY OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION
85
FLORIDA RANGE CATTLE PROBLEMS
A. L. SHEALY
Uv.iversity o~ F~orida
Florida has an area of 35,009,900 acres of land with approximately 5,000,000 acres in cultivation. A vast portion of the undeveloped area is better suited for grazing than for any other
purpose. Cattle have been raised in Florida for centuries. Camp
(1) states that there are two facts which would seem to establish
definitely that cattle were introduced into Florida by the Spanish
settlers: (a) there are certain sections that consisted of grants
from the Spanish crown to persons who could provide necessary
supplies, equipment and stock to settle on the lands of the newly
discovered country; and (b) the native cattle of Florida today
have many characteristics of the cattle found in Spain and Portugal in former years.
Bartram (2) in 1791 refers to the Alachua savanna located
near Gainsville, Florida, and the cattle of this area as follows:
"The extensive Alachua savanna is a level green plain about 15
miles over and 50 miles in circumference, and scarcely a tree or
bush of any kind to be seen on it.--At the same time are seen
innumerable droves of cattle, the lordly bull, the lowing cow, and
sleek capricious heifer". He further states, "The cattle were as
large and fat as those of the rich grazing pastures of--Pennsylvania".
It can be seen, therefore, that cattle have been raised in Florida for a long time. The abundance of rainfall is conducive to
the growing of native and improved grasses, while the .mild climate affords a long grazing season. The soils are suitable for the
growing of grass and many improved grasses are adapted to this
area. The vast areas of cut-over pine lands that could be utilized
advantageously for grazing with proper management and the
large acreage of so-called prairie lands that are found in this
state make Florida, potentially, a cattle state.
TYPES OF RANGES
Sellard (3) and Mooney (4) classified the range areas of central Florida as follows: East and Middle Florida Flat-woods;
Prairie (savanna); Middle Florida (hardwood) Hammock Belt,
and Peninsular Lime Sink Region (blackjack oak ridges). To
these range types should be added the peat soil ranges of the
Everglades, sandy soils underlaid with clay, and finer textured
clay soils as found in the western part of the state. The soils of
peninsular Florida are mainly of limited marine origin. Some of
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THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION
the outstanding ranges of west Florida are on alluvial flood
plains of the Suwannee, Appalachicola and Perdido rivers.
THE
PROBLEMS
When the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station was established at Lake City in 1889 one of the first problems on which
research work was conducted was a study of the disease called
"salt sick". Cattlemen called attention to the fact that on certain
ranges in the state cattle became emaciated and many of them
died if they were kept continually on these ranges; yet if the
affected cattle were driven to another range often not a great distance from the first range, the affected cattle would improve in
condition. The cattlemen r e f er r ed to the emaciated animals as
being "salt sick". The experiment station conducted work on
this problem for some time and finally reported that internal
parasites were responsible for the condition. At that time it
would have been impossible to determine the real cause due to
lack of methods of chemical determinations of the elements involved. The condition continued to be a real problem to the
cattlemen. In certain sections of the state some of the cattlemen
were forced out of business because of this condition. Others
found the cattle business decidedly unprofitable on account of
the condition. In 1930, Becker, Neal and Shealy (5) found that
"salt sick" or nutritional anemia of animals was due to insufficient
amounts of copper and iron in the grasses and other forage
grown on certain soil types. B r y a n and Becker (6) have shown
that the salt sick range soils are white and gray sands that are
not underlaid with clay, while the healthy range soils are finer
t e x t u r e d soil types with yellow sand to heavy clay subsoils, and
gray sands with clay subsoil. These workers found that "the surface soil of healthy ranges contained approximately 10 times as
much iron, 2 times as much copper, 5 times as much phosphorus,
and 5 times as much calcium as did those of t he salt sick areas."
After determining the cause of "salt sick", work was conducted
in an effort to find a practical solution of the problem on the
affected ranges of the state. It was found that the following
mixture, when put in covered boxes on the "salt sick" ranges
would prevent the disease, and would cure the affected animals
provided their cases were not too far advanced:
Red oxide of iron ................................ 25 pounds
Finely powdered copper sulfate ...... 1 pound
Common salt ........................................ 100 pounds
Cattlemen have carried out the recommendation of experiment
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION
87
station workers by providing these mineral supplements and cattle are being raised at the present time on ranges where the soil
is deficient in iron and copper.
In certain sections of the state it was found that cattle oftentimes developed a peculiar lameness, became emaciated, and that
the bones would break easily. This condition was referred to as
"sweeny" or "stiffs". Becker, Neal, Shealy, and York (7) found
that the condition was due to a deficiency of phosphorus in the
forages grown in these areas. Furthermore, it was found that
the condition could be corrected and prevented by supplying
phosphorus in the form of steamed bonemeal to cattle on the
phosphorus-deficient ranges. Bone-chewing has been observed
to be a good index of phosphorus deficiency. Sixty-seven
samples of forage t aken from areas where cattle chew bones
contained 0.377 per cent of calcium and 0.103 per cent of phosphorus, whereas 14 samples obtained from healthy ranges contained 0.353 per cent of calcium and 0.167 per cent of phosphorus.
These data show that phosphorus is a deficient element on ranges
where cattle chew bones.
Another important range cattle problem in Florida is that of
improving the grade of cows on the ranges. This improvement
must begin with the introduction of purebred blood into the
foundation breeding herds. Knapp and Shealy (8) have shown
that the native range cow is small in size, poor in conformation
and undesirable as a beef animal if no effort is made to improve
the breeding. The native cow must be the foundation upon
which the future beef cattle industry of Florida is built. Investigations and observations have shown that the native cows will
produce calves of desirable beef conformation when bred to
p u r e b r e d bulls of beef breeds. Hundreds of purebred bulls have
been brought into Florida during the past five years. The range
cattlemen realize the necessity at this time of producing animals
of a higher grade than were produced in past years. Much work
has yet to be done in improving the breeding stock.
Unpublished data show that pastures of improved pasture
grasses stocked at the rate of one steer per acre will furnish
sufficient grazing to produce from 0.25 pounds to 0.75 pounds
average daily gain on steers. Such grasses as carpet, centipede,
Bahia and Dallis do well in Florida. Carpet grass often comes
in naturally on moist areas in the ranges. Cattlemen have observed that these areas afford greater grazing than that furnished
by the native wire grass areas. One of the problems of the Florida cattlemen is to increase the carrying capacity of the ranges
by planting improved grasses on these grazing lands.
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THE AMERICAN S O C I E T Y O F A N I M A L
PRODUCTION
The feeding of r a n g e cows d u r i n g the w i n t e r m o n t h s is ano t h e r p r o b l e m confronting the cattlemen. Investigations are being c o n d u c t e d at this time to d e t e r m i n e the value of cottonseed
cake as a feed for r a n g e cattle d u r i n g the w i n t e r months. N o
cottonseed cake has ever been fed b y the cattlemen of Florida
in y e a r s past and it w o u l d seem that this feed could be used to
an a d v a n t a g e in wintering cattle. More attention will be given
to w i n t e r feeding of cattle in the future.
The most r e c e n t p r o b l e m affecting the entire livestock indust r y of Florida and the entire s o u t h is the screw w o r m fly. The
first infestation of s c r e w w o r m s was observed in A u g u s t 1933.
This o u t b r e a k was f o u n d in the n o r t h e r n part of the state. Since
that time, infestation has been r e p o r t e d in 66 out of the 67 counties in the State of Florida. The screw w o r m fly is a real m e n a c e
to the r a n g e cattle industry. The cattlemen are w o r k i n g laboriously in their efforts to control the fly b y treating infected animaIs,
b y applying fly repellents to w o u n d s and abrasions, b y using the
bloodless m e t h o d of castration and, in general, b y k e e p i n g a
close w a t c h u p o n their h e r d s at all times. The screw w o r m fly
presents a g r e a t p r o b l e m to cattlemen. No m e a n s of eradication
of this pest has been discovered.
T h e r e are m a n y problems confronting the r a n g e cattle o w n e r s
of Florida, h o w e v e r , these p r o b l e m s are being w o r k e d out a n d
progress is being m a d e in the cattle i n d u s t r y of this state.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Camp, Paul D. A study of range cattle management in Alachua County,
Florida. Flr. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 248:5-28. 1932.
2. Bartram, William. Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia,
East and West Florida. James & Johnson. Philadelphia. 1791. Pages
187-188.
3. Sellard, E. H. Sixth annual report. Fla. St. Geol. Survey. Pages 254258, 262-265, 310-319, 326-336. 1914.
4. Mooney, Chas. N. Soil survey of Payne's Prairie, Gainesville area. U. S.
Dept. of Agr. Bur. of Softs Circ. 72:1-5. 1912.
5. Becker, R. B. Neal, W. M., and Shealy, A. L. I. Salt sick: Its cause
and prevention. II. Mineral supplements for cattle. Fla. Agr. Exp.
Sta. Bul. 231:4-23. 1932.
6. Bryan, O. C. and Becker, R. B. The mineral content of soil types as
related to salt sick of cattle. Jour. Amer. Soc. Agron. 27:120-127. 1935.
7. Becker, R. B., Neal, W. M., and Shealy, A. L., and York, Gus. Sweeny
or stiffs (phosphorus deficiency) in cattle. Fla. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul.
264:3-27. 1933.
8. Knapp, Bradford, Jr., and Shealy, A. L. Beef Cattle Improvement in
Florida. Fla. Agr. Exp. Sta. BuL 281:3-22. 1935.