Florida Cattle Ranching History

Florida had 862,000 beef cows on January 1, 2024, ninth among the states and 3.0 percent of the U.S. total, and 1,560,000 cattle and calves of all kinds, according to USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The NASS Florida Cattle Facts brochure, dated August 2024, also counts a 2023 calf crop of 760,000, fifteenth in the nation, and 98,000 milk cows, twentieth; Florida dairies produced 1.95 billion pounds of milk in 2023, an average of 20,313 pounds per cow (USDA NASS, Florida Cattle Facts 2024). Florida's beef cow count sat just above North Dakota's 860,000 and below Kentucky's 907,000 on the brochure's list of leading states, with Texas first at 4,115,000.

The NASS county ranking for January 1, 2024 puts Okeechobee, Polk and Osceola counties at the top:

Levy County, with 46,000 cattle, and Alachua County, with 44,500, complete the county top ten (NASS).

The Florida herd has drifted lower over two decades: NASS counted 1,740,000 cattle and calves on January 1, 2004 and 1,560,000 on January 1, 2024.

The brochure's annual table shows beef cows at 950,000 in 2004, 970,000 in 2012, 905,000 in 2016 and 862,000 in 2024, and milk cows falling from 140,000 in 2004 to 98,000 in 2024 (USDA NASS, Florida Cattle Facts 2024). The decline was not steady: the all cattle count was 1,720,000 as recently as 2010 and 1,700,000 in 2017, then fell to 1,630,000 in 2022 and 1,610,000 in 2023 before the 2024 figure.

The county figures on this page come from that brochure, dated August 2024, and count cattle on January 1, 2024 (NASS brochure).

Florida's statewide livestock law dates to 1949 as chapter 25236 and still stands in chapter 588 of the Florida Statutes.

Section 588.12 declares a necessity for a statewide livestock law embracing all lands of the state and applied uniformly, and cites chapter 25236 of 1949 as its source (s. 588.12, Florida Statutes). Section 588.15, from the same 1949 act, makes every owner who intentionally, willfully, carelessly or negligently lets livestock run at large or stray onto public roads liable in damages for any injury and property damage that results (s. 588.15, Florida Statutes).

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services credits the Florida Fence Law with changing the open range and opening the way to improved animal husbandry, which let newer breeds survive Florida conditions; the same page says Brahman and Brahman cross bulls imported in the 1930s and later significantly changed the genetic makeup of herds, and it gives no date for the Fence Law (FDACS, Cracker Cattle and Cracker Horse Program). The Florida Cracker culture and cattle guide covers the earlier range era.

The first sterile fly test site for the New World screwworm was set up in Florida in 1951, and by early 1959 scientists claimed success in Florida and the Southeast.

USDA APHIS says the screwworm was first documented as a significant problem in the Southeast in 1933 after shipments of infested animals from the Southwest, that the federal government and the State of Florida committed $978,463 over nearly three years to a producer education program begun in 1935, and that the first sterile fly test site was set up in Florida in fall 1951 (USDA APHIS screwworm reference guide). APHIS puts Southeastern producer losses at up to $10 million to $20 million a year before eradication in 1959, and the eradication cost at $10 million from the federal government and Florida; the guide notes these dollar figures are not adjusted for inflation.

The National Agricultural Library's screwworm exhibit records a 1957 test over 2,000 square miles east of Orlando with a new fly plant at Bithlo, and says a harsh winter in 1957 to 1958 pushed the pest into a small area at the southern end of the peninsula (USDA National Agricultural Library). The first releases came in January 1958; in July 1958 a plant in an old airplane hangar at Sebring opened, able to produce 50 million flies a week. Ranchers were part of the effort: the exhibit says livestock producers and county agents added to the fly-trap data by reporting infestations, and it notes setbacks, including quarantine rules that were hard to enforce and small reinfestations reported in Florida, southern Alabama and Louisiana after success was claimed (NAL). APHIS adds that the screwworm reappeared in the Florida Keys in 2016, affecting endangered Key deer, and was eradicated again by early 2017 (APHIS).

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services buys permanent conservation easements on working ranches and farms through the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program, created in 2001.

The easements buy the development rights while the land stays in agriculture; projects are reviewed by a technical team, ranked by a selection committee and approved by the Governor and Cabinet; the program is written into section 570.70 of the Florida Statutes (FDACS, Rural and Family Lands Protection Program). The program page, which carries no date and was read on October 18, 2026, says easements cover over 247,000 acres, while a department release dated October 16, 2026 gives more than 253,000 acres, with nearly 188,000 preserved under the current commissioner (FDACS release, October 16, 2026).

That October release protected two cattle operations: an approximately 1,046-acre ranch in Highlands County, protected through an easement totaling $4,700,000, which grazes cattle on improved pasture and natural areas and grows its own hay, and an approximately 420-acre cattle operation in Manatee County next to Myakka River State Park, through an easement totaling $4,000,000, with $500,000 provided by Manatee County. Both sit in the Florida Wildlife Corridor, and the release notes that land on the Manatee ranch's northern boundary is projected to develop by 2040 in University of Florida development projections (FDACS).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the NASS Florida Cattle Facts brochure, sections 588.12 and 588.15 of the Florida Statutes, the APHIS screwworm guide, the National Agricultural Library exhibit, and the FDACS rural lands program page and its October 16 release.