Florida Cattle Enhancement Board Supports Statewide Research for All Herd Sizes
The Florida Cattle Enhancement Board continues its commitment to ensuring that meaningful, producer-focused research is conducted on behalf of cattlemen across the state—regardless of herd size. We spoke with Mack Glass of Cherokee Ranch, who served on the board and shared insight into how these efforts help strengthen the Florida cattle industry.
Meeting the Diverse Needs of Florida Cattle Producers
Glass emphasized the wide range of challenges faced by producers:
“In the world we live in people have different challenges… Florida cattlemen operate from smaller herds to some of the biggest herds in the country and so all those have interest and research needs that are separate.”
With operations varying widely in size, environment, and production style, the board works to ensure that research priorities reflect the full spectrum of Florida cattle production.
Addressing Regional Forage and Management Challenges
Florida’s large and geographically diverse landscape presents unique production issues.
“Florida’s a huge state from north to south and… we have different forage issues,” Glass explained. Because of this, the board engages with producers across all regions to understand their needs and direct research funding where it can make the biggest statewide impact.
Research Funding Process
Glass described the thorough evaluation system used to select research proposals each year:
- Professors and researchers submit formal funding requests.
- Board members review and rank each proposal.
- Funding is awarded to the projects that best advance the board’s goals and benefit producers.
“So we get to read all of them and we rank them and sadly enough we can’t fund them all but we get a lot of very interesting requests for funding,” he said. “It’s been a privilege to be able to participate in that event every year.”
Through this process, the Florida Cattle Enhancement Board ensures research investments reflect producer priorities—from forage improvement to herd health and sustainable management.
This is a segment from the Grazing The Facts Podcast where we take a look within the Florida Cattle Industry. To listen to the full interview, search your favorite podcast platform for Grazing The Facts.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.