USDA Assists Mother, Daughter Farm Team

INTRO: A mother and daughter farming together in northern Florida are making
environmental improvements to their operation with USDAs help. The USDAs Bob
Ellison has more. (1:40)
ANN AND EVIE BLOUNT RAISE CATTLE, GOATS AND TREES ON THEIR
NORTH FLORIDA FARM. THIS MOTHER AND DAUGHTER FARM TEAM HAVE
WORKED WITH THE U-S DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND THE
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA TO MAKE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS.
THE BLOUNTS HAVE BEEN HELPED BY U-S-D-A S NATURAL RESOURCES
CONSERVATION SERVICE TO CONTROL LIVESTOCK GRAZING.
Jason Hayford, USDA NRCS: We did quite a bit of fence for rotational grazing and then
put in some watering facilities and pipeline so as to help them get that grazing system
established.
Dr. Ann Blount, Gadsden Co., FL Farmer, Univ. of FL Agronomist: This lets those
pasture plants rest and during that rest period they are able to generate new leaves and
new root systems and get some height and size to them.
When the cattle graze it they graze a small pasture area very clean and then we move
them to another pasture.As far as the technical assistance thats where I think NRCS
really comes into play because a lot of folks just arent aware of just pasture systems.
BLOUNT AND HER DAUGHTER ARE ALSO COOPERATING WITH N-R-C-S
AND THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ON EXPERIMENTS TO HELP CONTROL
WEEDS AND REPLANT NATIVE GRASSES.
Blount: Looking at how cattle can be used to graze weeds rather than use herbicides.
Evie Blount, Gadsden Co., FL Farmer: We use the goats to clean out the weeds around
where the cows were in the pastures and back in tree lines and everything. They get all
the weeds like the dog fennel and they just clean it all down
Blount: We have a number of graduate students who try different types of cropping
practices. Thats involved some of the folks from NRCS because weve looked at putting
some of the native grasses back under pine trees that have been thinned.
FOR THE U-S DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, IM BOB ELLISON.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• USDA
• agriculture
• farming
• northern Florida
• environment
• cattle
• goats
• trees
• nrcs
• livestock grazing
• grazing system
• gadsden county
• root systems
• native grasses
• herbicides

[kartunnkri]

So Cool

[SuperDestro1111]

Nice

[1111DestroSuper]

sangat baik

[MRRAULSUA]

Thank you Farmers for keeping are food fresh and healthy

[DelilahZoe]

THANK YOU to the lady farmers, the NRCS, and the Extension service. This is the way to go!!

[kdpeddie]

This is so good! I'm proud of you guys.