JIM STRICKLAND
OWNER, STRICKLAND RANCH, MYAKKA CITY
Strickland likes being a rancher so much that, even if he couldn’t make a living at it, he’d do it anyway, he says. “My avocation is my job. I love being a Florida cowboy,” he says. Strickland, a Manatee County native who graduated from Manatee High School in 1973, comes from a family that has been ranching in Florida since before the Civil War. He took over his family’s ranch when he was still a teenager, following the death of his father. Today, he owns Strickland Ranch and is managing partner of Big Red Cattle and Blackbeard’s Ranch, a 4,530-acre cow-calf operation that borders Myakka River State Park. A conservationist and also a vice chairman of the Florida Conservation Group, Strickland is seeking to protect Blackbeard’s Ranch from future development by seeking conservation easements for land. “Many folks don’t realize that profitable cow-calf ranches are critical to keeping an open and wild landscape,” he says. “These ranches are largely natural; they provide wildlife habitat and drinking water for urbanized areas.”
| WHY HE RANCHES | “I’ve been a rancher my whole life, and it’s all I ever wanted to do. I love the cows, the woods and the wildlife. Right now I am focused on the melding of conservation and agriculture, specifically the importance of ranchland conservation and sustainable and profitable agriculture to Florida’s water and wildlife and our quality of life.” |
| FINDING BALANCE | “We are a constantly changing and fast-growing state, and this has large implications for the ranching industry. Ranchers need to constantly evolve and adapt to outside pressures that affect our ability to do our job. Balancing these growth and development pressures with our sustainable food production and natural resource conservation is a constant challenge.” |
“I don’t have a bucket list. I’m already living my dream.”