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Agriculture grows jobs,
but pay doesn't sprout
DAYTONA BEACH -- Farming is still
going strong in Volusia County, but don't look for agriculture to grow a
lot of high-paying jobs. A recent study produced for county
officials shows agricultural operations directly produce an estimated
6,000 jobs. Add in related employment and the total is more than 8,300,
according to the study released last week. "Most jobs (in agriculture),
truthfully, are lower paying, but a lot of horticulture-manager jobs go
begging for a lack of good people," Dana Venrick, a commercial
horticulturist with the University of Florida-Volusia County Extension
Service, said during a stop Friday on the 2008 Volusia County Farm Tour.
"With the right education, you can nearly write your own ticket." Venrick said many of the jobs at
local farms are created at harvesting time, and those jobs are paid by
the piece. But he said maintenance and upkeep jobs are hourly and can
produce more steady year-round work. Steve Crump, president of Vo-LaSalle
Farms in DeLeon Springs, said most of the good-paying jobs are outside
of Volusia County. "For most of the managerial-type
positions, you have to go to South Florida where they have big farms,"
Crump said. "It's mostly labor work for us." Crump has just three full-time
workers for his citrus- and vegetable-growing operation, but he'll hire
about 20 seasonal workers for the December-to-March citrus harvests. "There are a lot of opportunities in
the state for agriculture jobs, especially for educated people, but I
don't know of many in Volusia County," he said. Owners and employees at some of the
other stops on Friday's Farm Tour gave similar responses. Sam Park, owner of Park's Angus Ranch
south of Pierson, said he doesn't have any employees. "It's a hobby," Park said of his
small Angus cattle ranch co-owned with his wife, Judith, who, like Sam,
is retired. "We don't really have enough cattle to be a business." Park said his herd is usually 50-head
strong, but he has sold a couple of animals in recent months and is down
to about 40 head. At Big Value Garden Center in Daytona
Beach, employee Sandy Doggett said about 10 or 12 employees are on
staff. The nearly 50-year-old center has a retail store, plant nursery
for landscaping and house plants, and a commercial and residential
landscaping business. But employee turnover is minimal. "Most of us have been here a good,
long time," Doggett said. Clay Benedict, manager of
agricultural operations for W. Hay LLC, a subsidiary of Consolidated-Tomoka
Land Co., said the hay-growing operation has just 10 full-time
employees. "We just hired one employee a couple
of months ago, but most of them have been here 3 or 4 years," Benedict
said. The employees grade and till the
land, fertilize the crop, and cut and bale hay. "We have winter and summer crops," he
said. "It's just like a regular farming operation." Benedict said.
Consolidated-Tomoka got started in
agriculture 100 years ago when it was part of a turpentine co-operative.
Over the years, the company got into cattle and citrus, but later
dropped those operations. W. Hay was created about four years ago to
focus exclusively on hay production, Benedict said.
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