Florida Agriculture Literacy Day irse panre asnenntuaatli veevse rneta hde ald d eeascighn saptreidn gc hinil dwrhenic’sh bhouonkd arebdosu ot fa aggrircicuultluturere i nin edleumstreyn tary school t h r o u g h d r i v e classrooms around the state. The event is a partnership between Florida Agriculture in the Classroom, Inc. and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Florida Agriculture in the Classroom is a nonprofit association charged with educating Florida students and teachers about a the importance of Florida agriculture. It is funded by sales of the agriculture specialty o r i d l license plate known as the “Ag Tag.” Florida Agriculture in the Classroom is able to provide f Agriculture Literacy Day books and other related items free of charge because of the funding it receives from the Ag Tag. livestock and poultry A Florida Agriculture Literacy Day Book K •i Bnldueer Tgeaxtr, tReend T- e2xnt din g Bruabdbeles (limited) Arlette AIRllonubns etKrriganWetsi eoaryinnt dat aen Cnndhd bMa Dyral eerskni eCg anRs. boJoynh nson students in kindergarten through 2nd grade have short attention spans. Read y only three or four blue text stanzas per animal and the opening red text in bubbles. e 3rd - 5th grade K • Blue Text, Red Text in Bubbles, Photo Captions students in 3rd-5th grade are more engaged. Read most of blue text stanzas, red g text in bubbles and photo captions. n All students i • Map Text d may be read as time permits. a • Green Counties on the Florida map represent the counties with the greatest number of animals. e • Light Blue Counties R on the Florida map represent the counties with the second and third highest number of animals. • Black Text and Fun Facts are supplemental and may be read as time permits. “Educate Students About Florida Agriculture” (352) 846-1391 www.AgTag.org 2 3 E Holmes s Santa O W c k Nassau amb Rosa aloo alton ashington Jackson Gadsden Hamilton C i s W J o a a Bay C alh o u n WakLuelolan osreffe TaMylaodrison Suw 5 aibmul Baker Duval Liberty n ann Union Clay St. e Brad J Franklin Lafayette e ford o G h Gulf cli ns h Alachua Dixie sir Putnam Fla t gl 6 er Levy W D Y ! Marion 7 H O Volusia Drive Through Lake Citrus I’m an old S 4 u Seminole truck, but I’m not Florida mt e as old as agriculture! Do Hernando r Orange you know what agriculture is? Agriculture has been around for a Pasco long time, and whether you know Livestock and Poultry B it or not, it’s an important part Osceola r My of your everyday life. So hop on Road Map P Hillsborough ev name is ni a board and come e Polk r Ole Red. ll 3 d along as we visit a s beef cattle Indian livestock and poultry 1 River farms throughout Florida. (Page 6-7) They are spread from Manatee Hardee Ok 1 e ntoor twh etsot , ssoou thg eatn dr eeadasyt 2 D(Paagire y8 -9Ca) ttle DeSoto Highlands ech2obe St. Lucie for quite a ride. e Sarasota Martin 3 hogs and pigs (Page 10-11) Charlotte Glades 4 poultry/Layers (Page 12-13) Hendry Lee Palm Beach poultry/broilers 5 (Page 12-13) Broward 6 horses Collier (Page 14-15) 8 Goats Dade 7 M (Page 16-17) o n r o Sheep e 8 (Page 18-19) let’s review (Page 20-21) 4 5 Would you believe Florida has nearly Beef cows 1.6 million beef cattle! That puts Florida live abundantly in the top 15 states for the number of well in the cattle. When Florida cattle reach about FUN grasslands. 400 to 500 pounds, they are sold and shipped to the West and Midwest where they can continue to grow until they are big enough to be harvested. FACTS Osceola Cattle ranches help many people’s jobs and that is good for Florida’s Eight of economy. People who sell cattle feed, the United Highlands tractors, barns, fences, fertilizer and States’ top Let’s start in other useful things that cattle ranchers 25 largest Okeechobee County to need also benefit from cattle ranches. cow-calf learn about cattle. Highlands operations and Osceola counties also are in have many cows. Florida. Okeechobee B e e f c a t t l e About Florida has 40% 4 Common types of beef cattle: of Florida million farms acres of Cattle ranching is the job of own beef pastureland owning, raising and working tractor cattle. and 1 cattle. People in these jobs are called cattlemen or cattlewomen. And don’t forget about the grocery ½ million stores and restaurants that sell the acres of beef! People who work there benefit grazed when you enjoy those yummy Angus hamburgers and steaks. of all woodland. Florida agricultural land is involved a d ori in cattle Fl of production. es v hi c Ar e at 1880 Cattlemen St Hereford Florida- bred cattle Cattle have been in Florida for Cattle ranches are big green areas, and are sent almost 500 years. Spanish explorer that’s good for conserving the natural all over Juan Ponce de León brought them environment. In addition to grassy the world here in boats in 1521. The cattle areas, cattle ranches have wetlands, because they roamed the countryside and grew in woodlands and prairies where birds and can tolerate cattlewomen numbers. In the late 1800s, cow hunters other wild animals also live. Having these hot climates. gathered them up and began cattle big open areas lets rain water soak back Brahman ranching to feed themselves and others. into the ground so nature can use it. hamburger 6 7 Most Florida FUN dairy cows are Holsteins. Holsteins usually have black and white or red and white FACTS spots. An average Holstein cow weighs 1,400 pounds, but they don’t need to go on a diet. They need to eat about 100 pounds of feed each day and drink up to mers ar 50 gallons of water. y F air a D Each dairy cow d ori produces Fl 6 8 to We have more than 130 dairy farms in Florida, gallons of milk and almost all of them are each day. family-owned. Sometimes dairy farmers are up before Florida Dairy Farmers D A I R Y c a t t l e Let’s visit some tmhielk seudn t. wCoow osr nthereede ttoim bees 86 of Florida’s dairy farms. a day, starting in the early % Florida Many are here in Okeechobee morning. Within two or three Coucnotuyn.t iLesa fafyuertthtee r anndor tShu waalsnon ee sremra dneayigsh, tbhoerirh mooildk gwriollc beery i nst yooreu.r ra1nks st of Florida have a lot of dairy F yria If you like milk, cheese, milk is D sold as cows. ad yogurt and butter, thank our in the suwannee irolF Florida dairy farmers. Southeast drminilkkin. g family farm and 19 th Did you know that some breeds of cattle are best at providing lafayette meat and others are best for Florida has more than 120,000 dairy in the U.S. producing milk? We call the cows cattle producing more than 270 in milk that are good at producing milk million gallons of milk each year. That production. dairy cows. comes to about six gallons of milk ers from each cow every day! In the late m Okeechobee ar F 1800s, cows only produced about two y air quarts of milk per day. We have learned D a d to take care of cows so that they are ori Fresh cow milk Fl better milk producers! Cows are fed a combination of hay, grain In the and silage old days, cows (fermented corn Dairy cows were first brought to were milked by or grass). America in 1611 through Jamestown, a hand. Now they d Flori Virginia. By the 1800s, they were are milked of being sold to North Florida plantations ves in Leon and Jefferson counties. mechanically. hi Arc However, these plantations used the e at milk from their dairy cows for their own St families and households. In the late Milk wagons at Waldo’s Dairy 1800s, dairies started selling their - DeLand, Florida 1900 products to people in cities. milking cows 8 9 Many of the breeds of hogs and pigs raised for sale in Florida and the rest of the U.S. are crossbreeds of the Yorkshire, Hampshire and FUN Duroc. Much effort goes into raising hogs and pigs. Even a small farm will need at least two acres so they are not too close to neighbors. They also need FACTS shade, an open-fronted shelter and a covered self-feeder. Common types of hogs and pigs: Insulin and 40 Florida hog Farm other medicines come from pigs. Like every animal, there are males and females. The females are called Well, hop sows and the males are called back in. We’re driving boars. A young female that has not from Okeechobee to A Pigs H O G S A N D P I G S Hillas bloorto uogfh oCuro uhntoyg sb eacreau se Hampshire hgialdt. aF alirtrtoewr oinf gb aisb tyh pei wgso irsd c uaslleedd PIG apprwoxeiigmha tely for giving birth to pigs. Boars eat there. 2½ between five and eight pounds of is a young food each day. A sow generally eats HOG about four pounds of food each day. pounds However, after she has a litter she can . at birth. eat up to 12 pounds of food per day and require up to seven gallons of marion If you like sausage water. Yorkshire or bacon with your hamilton Does it take breakfast, remember a lot of work to that these foods come care for hogs? You from swine. Swine is the Hillsborough bet it does! term for hogs and pigs. How did these animals get A pig can to Florida? It is generally run a believed that Juan Ponce Hendry 7 de León introduced swine Duroc to Florida in 1521, but Hernando De Soto is minute often called “the father ad MILE iro of the American pork lF fo . industry.” He was a se v Spanish explorer who ihcrA Today, we have more Hereford landed in Tampa Bay eta than 14,000 hogs pigs and sm with 13 pigs in 1539. tS and pigs in Florida. hogs with raF k e In three years’ time his Many are here in farrowing erC pigs have herd grew to more than Hillsborough County. tunnel. otle gone to m 700 pigs. The pigs that Hamilton, Hendry and laP WAR d ran away became wild Marion counties also ooW , atponigddsa .ayr’se rtahzeo rabnacceksst oorrs foefr al Raising pigs in hhaovges .a lot of pigs and harobeD misnere vsninifgf aers s. early 1900s 10 11 All eggs sold in retail markets FUN must meet quality standards. grades FACTS AA or A are the highest quality eggs and are sold in supermarkets. Cobb Chicken Cobb-Vantrees, Inc. Each year, between 50 70 Nowadays the majority of meat & Let’s producers are in North Florida, in travel to million broilers Suwannee County. The breed of Hernando and are sold at the chicken that is raised for meat is called Suwannee grocery store. the Cobb and is a cross between the counties. Cornish Game and the Plymouth Rock chickens. This chicken grows fast and is In the 1950s, the poultry industry P O U L T R Y took off. Now, there are egg farms disease-resistant. Florida eggs provide throughout Florida. But the farms 180 that sell the most eggs are still right $ here in Hernando County. million per year for our economy. Poultry can mean chicken, but it can popular breeds of also include turkeys, ducks and geese. laying hens All poultry have feathers, but no teeth or sweat glands. The most common is the Florida chicken. Rhode White egg Island Red Leghorns producers In the early part of the 1900s, many suwannee (brown eggs) (white eggs) rank households had their own backyard Broilers 10th flocks. These chickens supplied eggs for the family and an occasional chicken for hernando teenage Cobb Chick in the United Sunday or holiday dinners. Layers States. Florida’s poultry industry provides many jobs. These are farmers who raise the birds, the Florida americans farmers who grow their feed, chickens are divided hens lay eat incubator the truck drivers who deliver the into two types: 2.5 more product to the stores, and the than a d grocers who sell the chickens and iro 80 lF fo broilers Florida settlers learned to use the eggs. billion sev are the chickens incubator to raise more layers. Both birds are popular because eggs ihcrA raised for meat These chickens were being raised they are hardy and lay a lot of eggs. The next time you take a bite of per year. pounds eta for their eggs; the business of raising The average laying chicken lays no a chicken sandwich, omelet, or of tS layers chickens to sell for meat came later. more than one egg a day. another egg dish, think about all chicken 1900s chicken coop are the hens that the hard work of the people who per person provide eggs got those chickens and eggs from per year. the farm to your table. 12 13 In the 1930s, race tracks were built Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association near Miami and Tampa Bay. Some people tried to raise Thoroughbred racehorses in South Florida, but they FUN soon learned that Central Florida, had the best land to raise good racehorses. FACTS By the 1950s, there were some very good Thoroughbred horse farms in Marion County. Other horses Thoroughbreds were raised to herd cattle and were called quarter horses. People Today we also have Arabians, Quarter outside of Florida laughed at the Horses, miniature horses, Tennessee idea of raising good horses in sandy, Walkers, Paints, Shetland Ponies palm tree-filled Florida. In 1956, and many other kinds of horses. There are more than a Florida Thoroughbred named The horse breeding industry is spread 120,000 Needles from Marion County won throughout Florida. Equine is the term the Kentucky Derby. They weren’t for horse families. So let’s laughing after that. horses in Florida. travel a little further south to Marion County. Florida has ) H o r s e s noita more than ic 700 o ssA sre n w quarter horse O horse farms. d n a sre d e e rB d by charlene R. Johnson erb hg Many horse riding u o ro trails are included Just like some cattle breeds, hT a in The d horses first came into the state Marion Before we had trucks and cars, horses irolF 110 MILE when early Spanish explorers were very important to settling needles miniature horses brought them to this continent. Florida. Some of the early settlers used Some of them escaped their horses to help herd cattle, pull wagons Marjorie Harris Carr Needles became very famous, and owners and are the descendants and plows, and even take the children Cross Florida Greenway. many others decided to try to raise a of today’s Florida cracker horses. to school every day. I bet they were it stretches from the Derby winner in Marion County, too. more fun than a school bus! Gulf of Mexico to the In fact, lots of people started breeding St. Johns River. horses in Florida, and soon they were raising many famous racehorses. By the 1970s, Florida was one of only four places in the world with a large number of paints Thoroughbred horses. All of Florida’s People have to feed the horses, equestrian jobs groom them, ride and train them. combined bring in Horse They haul them to the race tracks or more than ad farms provide show rings and maybe just out into the irolF jobs, too! woods for a good, long trail ride. Horses $2 fo se also need veterinarians, feed stores and v ih crA blacksmiths. Horses even have dentists, BILLION eta just like you do! If you get a chance to tS ride a horse, it will certainly be fun, cracker horse each year to 1900s wagon and it also helps other people earn Florida’s economy. money for their families. 14 15 There are several types of goats Norma Tillman, Cont’d Farm including goat breeds that are raised just for their meat. Goat meat is popular in many Indian recipes. Here are FUN the most popular Florida meat goats: FACTS spanish Guess where Spanish Goats originated? Yes, you’re right. They come from Spain! The ones we have boer A large group of today are similar to those that came goats is called a from our early European settlers. They Boer goats were developed in South HERD are well adapted to Florida’s heat. Africa in the early 1900s for meat production. . ) Let’s stay G o a t s here in Marion County, it has the sm m ra most goats of all Far F se Floarbioduat c3o,u5nt0ie0s. - n Acres rcA ytin GAthmoeaiertr shi cwiaset boreyr y aS glpsoaone bsisr bhoau ecgxkhp ftlao trorteh Nresor, r btthuhat n y Golden, Golde ereS ,dnaS eoJ GFoaItsR weSre Tthe b b that. They were the first animal mytonic Bo alpine Dairy goat domesticated by man more than animals to be 10,000 years ago. Today, all Florida used for milk by counties have goats. Most goat farms are Mytonic goats were developed in Dairy goats are bred just for humans. between 10 and 50 acres. Tennessee. They are also called the their milk. Did you know Tennessee Fainting Goat. They don’t that people drank goat milk really faint. But their legs get stiff when before they drank cow milk? they are startled. Popular breeds in Florida are Alpine, Toggenburg and Saanen Both male and female goats, which all came from goats can have the Alps in Switzerland. Dairy BEARDS n goats are small, easily handled o . itaic animals. They can live on small o ssA farms and can return the cost of tao their feed through their milk. G What do parents and goats have in o k iK common? They all have kids! All n a c “kidding” aside, goats are also ire m important to Florida. kiko A The female goat is called a doe or nanny. The male goat is called a Marion There are about 50,000 goats in the buck or billy. Do you remember Kiko goats originated from New The state. Marion County has the most goats ancient cave what their offspring are called? They Zealand by crossing feral goats with PUPIL of all Florida counties - about 3,500. But painting of goats are kids, just like you! If you see a dairy goats in the 1980s. They were there are goats in each of Florida’s 67 goat on a farm, remember that you developed for fast growth, survivability counties. have something in common with their in the eye of the and hardiness. babies. goat is a rectangle. 16 17 Here are some popular meat sheep breeds in Florida: FUN ms Far ms ne ar er, Calovi alovine F FACTS b C h Ta ber, ut Ta R h katahdin ut R St. Augustine The Katahdin was developed in the 1950s in Maine. It is a low-maintenance RAMS sheep that is naturally tolerant of many The St. Augustine was types of weather and environments. developed in Florida, so they It has a natural resistance to internal can weigh up to live well in the heat. When they parasites. 450 pounds. have babies, they sometimes have twins and triplets of many colors. They love to eat Florida’s Let’s pastures. EWES travel down south! S H E E P There are lots of smra sheep here in Miami- F en If you can weigh up to Dade County! ivola are tired of 300 pounds. C ,re mowing your b aT h lawn, get a tu R sheep! barbados blackbellies Sheep have Sheep been in live Barbados Blackbellies come from the Florida between marion Caribbean island of Barbados. They since the 6 11 look like antelopes and can be brown, Have you ever heard you can & 15th tan or yellow. They have lots of babies, go to sleep by counting sheep? and easily adapt to Florida’s conditions. years. If you count all 18,000 sheep Century. in Florida, you may never go palm to sleep! There are lots of sheep beach Ruth Taber, Calovine Farms in Miami-Dade County, but Palm Beach and Marion counties also have many sheep too. Healthy LAMBS Miami - Dade Sheep have been here since the 15th century. Many people think the Florida Native was In all sheep breeds, the can stand Sheep can be raised for their meat brought here by Spanish and dorper female sheep is the ewe. The within minutes or their wool. Ironically, sheep that French explorers. They are ms are raised for their meat are called sheep male sheep is called a ram or after birth. known for their natural resistance Far buck. A baby sheep is a lamb. e “hair sheep.” Their hair does not to parasites. It is an endangered vin Dorper sheep were developed in Sheep are grazers and consume species in Florida, and is raised Calo require trimming like wool sheep, South Africa in the 1930s. Dorpers are between 2 and 4 ½ pounds of fao hr aitisrc wuot, oitl . i sW chalelend s hsheeeapr ignegt. Ruth Taber, aAmnse dFa lttoh srehidyea ec’spa cn ius e lbtnuedrcueo rcmeh hianongtg tmeesro , crrlaeimi siantge s. vskeirny cmouvescriunlgar i sin h tahire airn hdi nwdo loelg asn. dTh ite wir ill fcoloovde er aacnhd dpaays t(umroe sptllya ngtrsa)s. sI f As hgereopu ips ao f These sheep provide about eight drop off without being sheared. The you are tired of mowing your FLOCK popular because dishes that use their pounds of wool each year. Dorper has thick skin, which protects lawn, get a sheep! meat are becoming more common. . the sheep from the weather. We call those meats lamb or mutton. 18 19