Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson announced Monday the preservation of three family farms in the Florida Wildlife Corridor through the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ 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 Wilton Simpson. “The Rural and Family Lands Protection Program is a win-win-win for the state as it not only protects productive agricultural land and our food security, but it does so in a fiscally responsible way by keeping the property on the local tax rolls and requiring property owners to maintain the land and its natural resources according to best management practices.”