Florida Spends Millions Protecting Farmland
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.
On Monday, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson announced the preservation of three family farms in the Florida Wildlife Corridor through the state’s Rural and Family Lands Protection Program. The K-Rocker Ranch, a 707-acre ranch in Polk County, the Los Niños Farm, a 998-acre timber and cattle operation in Putnam County, and the Kuder Ranch, a 525-acre cattle ranch in Polk County, are being preserved through rural land protection easements for $3,200,000, $1,798,000, and $3,900,000, respectively.
“With the preservation of these three ranches and their over 2,200 acres of productive agricultural land, in addition to the more than 36,000 acres we've permanently preserved in the last year, we are working to protect Florida’s valuable agricultural lands as efficiently and effectively as possible – and before it’s too late,” said Commissioner Simpson.
The Program purchases the development rights to the agricultural properties through voluntary rural land easements, which prevent the future development of the land and allow agriculture operations to continue.
