The effect of Cattle Stocking Rate on Water Quality and its Implication for Multipl Land Use

John C. Capece and Morteza Mozaffari

To improve ecosystem health, south Florida ranches must now meet the multiple objectives of profitable cattle production, robust wildlife habitat, and acceptable water quality. To evaluate potential solutions, UF is implementing an 16-plot experiment on 1200 acres of improved pastures and native range subjected to 4 cow-calf stocking rates. Water quality and biological effects will be measured to determine compatibility of the stocking alternatives with ecosystem objectives. The resulting management program will be implemented using UF extension combined with the leardership and regulatory powers of the project cooperators (Florida Cattlemen Association, South Florida Water Management District and Archbold Biological Station).


Florida is the second largest cattle producer in the eastern United States. To meet the goals of building a sustainable ecosystem and economy, Florida cattle ranches must now serve the multiple land use objectives of providing profitable cattle production, robust wildlife habitat, and acceptable runoff water quality. Runoff from much of Florida's cattle areas eventually drain into the sensitive Lake Okeechobee/Everglades system. Therefore, development of environmentally-sound cattle production practices is absolutely necessary for long-term sustainability of the cattle industry in Florida. University of Florida, Archbold Biological Station, South Florida Water Management District and Florida Cattlemen's Association have taken a multidisciplinary, holistic appoach toward developing sustainable cattle production practices. Since 1991, research efforts have been underway at the MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center (Buck Island Ranch), a 10,000-acre fully-functional commercial ranch. Objectives of the newest experiment are to examine 1) the relationships between cattle grazing intensity and runoff water quality, and 2) whether grazed wetlands can simultaneously support cattle ranching and assimilate nutrients. The experiment consists of 2 grazing blocks (summer pasture and winter range) with 8 plots each on which 2 replicates of 4 cattle stocking rate treatments are applied. Surface runoff will be sampled on each of the 16 plots to measure stocking treatment N and P loading rates. Forage nutrient content and available soil P will be measured to assess the effect of stocking rate on nutrient assimilation. Research findings will help determine optimum cattle stocking rates and help establish the value of rangeland for improving water quality. Results will be communicated to ranchers, policy makers, and scientists through workshops, extension factsheets, presentations, journal articles and the project's WWW homepage.