Adams Ranch

The Adams Ranch has been in the same family and in continuous operation for almost 70 years. From a tract of grassland purchased in 1937 by Alto Adams Sr., to the incorporation of the Ranch twenty-six years later, Adams Ranch has grown from a single 15,000-acre ranch in St. Lucie County to more than 65,000 acres in St. Lucie, Osceola, Okeechobee and (another?) counties.

The Adams Ranch started with 1,600 cows in the late 1940's. The cowherd now numbers more than 10,000 and is the fifteenth largest cow-calf ranch in the nation. Four generations of the Adams family have worked on the ranch and managed its operations. Family ownership has given them the opportunity to operate, manage and improve the ranch with a long-term vision rather than for short-term profits.

In the process of developing the ranch, the Adams Ranch land management and conservation practices have been nationally recognized as being beneficial to our native wildlife and plants. Adams Ranch is dedicated to a program of total ranch management. The Ranch adapts the cattle to fit the land, the climate, the insects, and the feed that are produced on it. Care is taken to preserve the natural cover of the wildlife. Nature's balance is used to control the problems. By doing this the soil, the air, and the water quality are preserved.

"The breed is a renewable resource. It is not good enough for us to just do a good job breeding and caring for cattle. We must have a total program that keeps man, cattle, wildlife, and the land in a relationship that is profitable, productive and can be continued indefinitely." - Alto "Bud" Adams, Jr.

From our nation's beginnings, cattle ranches have been a vital and integral part of its economy and ecosystem. They produce food for human consumption, taxes to support roads and schools and government, and a protected refuge for many kinds of wildlife. Their open range provides the greenbelts so essential to balance the pollution and environmental contamination brought by our expanding urban areas.

Farmers and ranchers help to preserve the environment while at the same time guarantee a sustainable food supply.

(Excerpts, Adaptation from "A Florida Cattle Ranch", pages 84 - 85)

The Adams Ranch acts as a preservation area for plant, insect and animal life, creating the very fabric of Florida's backcountry. It is there that nature is constantly seeking its balance. Adams Ranch introduced a superior pasture grass (clover and legumes) and manages its water supplies to enhance the delicate wildlife and cattle balance. Grazing and browsing animals complement one another. Rather than altering the environment to fit the cattle, the Adams Ranch has adapted the cattle to the environment.

Rivers, pinewoods, wetlands, grassy marshes, prairies and hammocks are all a part of the Adams Ranch and contribute to the protection and survival of the wildlife that resides there. The bald eagle, sand hill crane, deer, wild turkey, caracara, alligators, wading birds such as ibis, herons and egret, swallow-tailed kites, raccoons, crayfish, quail, mallards, rabbits, armadillos, wild hogs, white squirrels, bobcats, foxes, many species of hawks and owls, and snakes all thrive on the ranch.

Successful ranchers have awareness and appreciation of nature - soil, water, seasons, climate, weather, natural plant life and crops, wild and domestic animals, insects, fish, reptiles and fowl. These elements are at the center of every rancher's daily life and conversation. On the Adams Ranch consideration of the relationship between the natural environment and the cattle goes beyond the norm. The Adams Ranch and Bud Adams have won numerous awards for Environmental Stewardship.

(Adapted from "Great Ranches of the United States" by Delbert Ward)