• Topics: Soil and Water Science  |  Obreza, Thomas Anthony  | Means, Gregory D  | Suwannee River Valley Region  | Jefferson County Soil and Water  | Madison County Soil and Water  | Hamilton County Soil and Water  | Columbia County Soil and Water  | Suwannee County Soil and Water  | Lafayette County Soil and Water  | Taylor County Soil and Water  | Dixie County Soil and Water  | Gilchrist County Soil and Water  | Levy County Soil and Water  |  Alachua County Soil and Water  | Bradford County Soil and Water  | Union County Soil and Water 

Characterizing Agriculture in Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin Area¹

Introduction

The Suwannee River is a major aquatic resource that begins in Georgia and flows through north Florida until it empties into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. About two-thirds of the river basin is in Georgia, while the other one-third, known as the “Lower Suwannee Basin,” is in Florida (Figure 1). The Lower Suwannee Basin forms the central portion of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) (http://www.srwmd.state.fl.us), which encompasses all or parts of 15 counties (Figure 2).

Figure 1. 

Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin (in green) and surrounding area.

Figure 2. 

Boundary of the Suwannee River Water Management District.

The Lower Suwannee Basin is designated as a “Showcase Watershed” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It contains the highest concentration of first-magnitude freshwater springs in the world. (A first magnitude spring is one that discharges at least 100 cubic feet of water per second, or about 64.6 million gallons per day.) During the last 20 years, the nitrate-N concentration of some of the basin's rivers and springs has increased to the point of environmental concern. In response, the states of Florida and Georgia, the Federal government, and other local organizations have identified the Suwannee River Basin as an ecosystem in need of protection because of its unique biota and important water resources.

Objective of this Publication

The Suwannee River Partnership (http://www.suwannee.org) was formed in 1999 to determine the sources of nutrient loads in the river basin, and to work with local land users to minimize future nutrient loading through voluntary, incentive-based programs. Agriculture and forestry are the dominant land uses in the watershed. While the environmental impact of forestry is usually low, intensive agricultural production has the potential to affect water quality if nutrients and water are not carefully managed.

Agriculture in the Lower Suwannee Basin is diverse--beef, dairy, poultry, field crop, forage, vegetable, and nursery production are all found there. Nutrient and water management issues important to environmental protection vary between these agricultural segments, so it is imperative to understand how they are spatially distributed throughout the 7,640 square mile area of the SRWMD. Therefore, the objective of this publication is to characterize agriculture in Florida's Lower Suwannee Basin Area so that Best Management Practice educational programs can be appropriately developed and efficiently delivered to key target audiences.

Data Sources and Collection Method

Data sources

• Agricultural production data: Florida Agricultural Statistics Service (FASS) (http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Florida/index.asp)

• Pine plantations: Florida Geographic Data Library (http://www.fgdl.org)

• Soil characteristics: USDA-NRCS county soil surveys

• Population: U.S. Census Bureau (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/12000.html)

• Fertilizer consumption: Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), Fertilizer Section (http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/onestop/aes/fertilizer.html)

• Irrigation: U.S. Geological Survey

Data collection

Data were obtained on a county-by-county basis. The SRWMD includes all of Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Suwannee, Taylor, and Union counties, and parts of Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Jefferson, Levy, and Putnam counties. Since the District includes only portions of six counties, this report covers an area slightly larger than the entire Lower Suwannee River basin. The portions of Baker and Putnam counties within the District boundary are small and were deemed insignificant for the purpose of this report, so they were not included in the summaries. However, the reader is cautioned that the reported data for Alachua, Bradford, Jefferson, and Levy counties represent the entire county, not all of which falls within the SRWMD or the Lower Suwannee River Basin watershed.

In some cases, agricultural production data were not available from FASS for particular counties where the number of farms for a given operation type were small, possibly compromising anonymity of the farms. In these cases, data could not be included in the overall summary, so several of the analyses are incomplete.

Characterizing the Basin

Population

The population of the 13 counties representing Florida's Lower Suwannee Basin area was 507,155 in 2004, but 44% of the total (223,090) was in Alachua county. The remaining counties had considerably lower population density (Figure 3) and remained rural in nature, although counties immediately north and west of Alachua were roughly twice as densely-populated as the rest due to influence of population centers like Live Oak, Lake City, Gainesville, and Jacksonville.

Figure 3. 

Population density (persons per square mile) in 2004.

Landscape and soil characteristics

The basin is generally flat with occasional rolling topography. Elevation ranges from sea level at the Gulf coast to around 180 ft in parts of Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Suwannee, Columbia, and Alachua counties (Figure 4). Soil erosion can be a localized problem in some sloping agricultural fields, but in general it is not a major issue across the basin. Most rain and irrigation water infiltrates the soil unless soil crusting has occurred, which can increase runoff to ditches and streams.

Figure 4. 

Land elevation in Florida's Lower Suwannee Basin area.

Most of the soils used for agricultural production are classified as Entisols, Ultisols, or Spodosols. These soil orders cannot be differentiated from one another by observing only the surface soil (plow layer) because they are similar. One must look deeper in the profile to find differences.

• Entisols (Figure 5, top) have little or no evidence of soil formation, and the entire profile is sandy throughout. The reason for this is that not enough time has elapsed for soil-forming processes to act following deposition of the sandy material by the ocean.

• Ultisols (Figure 5, middle) have a sub-surface layer of loamy material (Bt horizon) due to the downward movement and accumulation of clay. This clay is acidic and low in plant nutrient content.

• Spodosols (Figure 5, bottom) have a black, brown, or reddish-brown subsoil layer called a spodic (Bh) horizon. This layer is often overlain by a light-gray to whitish layer (E horizon). The spodic horizon is an accumulation of organic matter, aluminum, and iron compounds that leached from a surface litter layer. Sometimes a Bt horizon is found below the Bh horizon, but a Bh never occurs below a Bt.

Figure 5. 

Distribution of three major soil orders used for agricultural production in north Florida, and examples of their profiles.

Regardless of soil order, the root zone (A horizon) texture in the basin is usually sand or fine sand. Some Ultisols can have a slightly more loamy texture (e.g. loamy sand) at the surface. Compared with agricultural soils in other parts of the USA, the water-holding capacity of north Florida soils is low (Table 1). Water-holding capacity of a typical Midwestern corn belt soil is two to three times higher than a sandy Florida soil.

Soil nutrient-holding capacity as measured by soil cation exchange capacity (CEC) and organic matter content is also low (Table 2). Although Ultisols and Spodosols have higher CEC in the Bt and Bh horizons, these layers do not support root growth due to high acidity, compaction, or low oxygen content. The organic matter accumulated in a Bh horizon does not contribute to soil fertility because of high acidity and aluminum toxicity associated with it.

Of the three soil orders, Entisols are most vulnerable to leaching of nutrients and agrichemicals because they are sandy throughout, contain little organic matter, are highly conductive to water flow, and have no sub-surface layer that can slow water drainage through the profile. Six of the thirteen counties in the Lower Suwannee Basin area have more than 20% of their area mapped as Entisols (Figure 5). The highest concentration runs along a straight line through Hamilton, Suwannee, and Gilchrist counties, increasing from north to south.

Extent of farmland and planted pineland

Most counties in the Lower Suwannee Basin area had between one-quarter and one-third of their land area devoted to pine plantations (Figure 6). Taylor county contained the largest acreage of commercial pine forest by a wide margin, followed by Columbia and Levy counties (Table 3).

Counties with the largest percentage of total land area devoted to farms were Alachua, Suwannee, Union, Gilchrist, Jefferson, and Madison (Figure 6). Alachua had the most farm acres, followed by Levy, Suwannee, Madison, and Jefferson (Table 3). Taylor had the largest average farm size, followed by Lafayette, Jefferson, and Madison.

Figure 6. 

Relative amount of land occupied by farms and pine plantations.

Market value of farm production

Suwannee county had the highest market value of farm production by a wide margin compared with other counties (Figure 7). Following Suwannee were Levy, Alachua, Lafayette, Columbia, and Gilchrist.

Figure 7. 

Market value of total farm production in millions of dollars (2002).

Field crops

Floridas Lower Suwannee Basin is a major field crop production area. Field crop distribution was determined for all crops combined, and for three crop sub-categories (Table 4).

Field crop production was greatest in Alachua, Levy, and Suwannee counties (Figure 8). Levy had the most acreage devoted to major (non-vegetable) row crops, Alachua had the greatest hay and forage acreage, and Suwannee had the most acreage of vegetables and melons.

Figure 8. 

Cropland acreage in Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin area (2002). *Some crop data in these counties was excluded from the ag census to avoid disclosing individual farms

In 2002, of Florida's 67 counties:

• Alachua ranked no. 1 in land area devoted to forage and hay production, and no. 2 in silage corn.

• Gilchrist ranked no. 4 in silage corn and no. 1 in silage sorghum.

• Hamilton ranked no. 4 in grain corn and no. 3 in cowpeas.

• Jefferson ranked no. 2 in grain corn and no. 4 in cowpeas.

• Levy ranked no. 2 in peanuts and no. 1 in silage corn.

• Madison ranked no.1 in grain corn, grain rye, cowpeas, and soybeans.

• Suwannee ranked no. 4 in forage and hay, no. 5 in peanuts, no. 3 in silage corn, no. 3 in sweet corn, and no. 7 in all vegetables harvested.

Animal agriculture

Florida's Lower Suwannee Basin area contains significant animal agriculture (Figure 9). For example, in 2002, of Florida's 67 counties:

Figure 9. 

Animal agriculture in Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin area (2002). *Animal numbers for these counties were excluded from the ag census to avoid disclosing data for individual farms

• Suwannee ranked no. 1 in sales value of poultry and eggs.

• Columbia ranked no. 1 in laying hen inventory (although the actual number of birds was protected by FASS). Suwannee ranked no. 7.

• Suwannee and Lafayette ranked no. 1 and no. 4, respectively, in broiler inventory.

• Levy, Gilchrist, Lafayette, and Suwannee ranked 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th, respectively, in dairy production sales value.

Pastureland

Pastureland is widespread throughout Florida's Lower Suwannee Basin area, and is the most common agricultural land use in each county (Figure 10). Statewide, in 2002, Alachua ranked no. 12 for land area devoted to pasture.

Outdoor nurseries

Levy county dominated in land area devoted to outdoor nursery production in 2002, with about half of the Lower Suwannee Basin area total (Figure 11). Alachua had 17% of the total, and the rest was distributed among 9 other counties for which data were available. No data were reported for Lafayette and Union.

Figure 10. 

Pastureland acreage in Florida's Lower Suwannee River basin area (2002).

Figure 11. 

Outdoor nursery acreage in Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin area (2002).

Irrigation

Although the Lower Suwannee Basin averages 50 inches of rainfall per year, uneven distribution can lead to drought periods in the spring and fall. Spring crops are particularly susceptible to water stress, so all vegetable crops and many other row crops are irrigated. Both overhead and low-volume (drip) irrigation systems are used, and the primary water source is groundwater.

The top three counties in irrigated acreage are Levy, Suwannee, and Alachua (Figure 12), which is no surprise because these are also the top three counties in field crop production. These counties plus Gilchrist are the top four agricultural water users in terms of freshwater withdrawals (Figure 12). When comparing the two maps in Figure 12, the reader is cautioned that while irrigated acreage is for the entire county, water use data represent only the land area within the Suwannee River Water Management District boundary. Therefore, the two maps are not directly comparable for Alachua, Bradford, Jefferson, and Levy counties. Also, the water use data is 2 years older than the irrigated acreage data.

Figure 12. 

Agricultural irrigation water use in Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin area. *Values shown for Alachua, Bradford, Jefferson, and Levy counties represent only the portion of the county within the SRWMD boundary.

Fertilizer consumption

Fertilizer application is necessary to achieve maximum economic crop yields in the Lower Suwannee Basin. Nitrogen and phosphorus are two macronutrients commonly applied in fertilizers. These nutrients provide a positive crop response, but can also degrade water quality if, over the long term, they are transported by leaching or runoff from the application site to surface or groundwater.

Nitrogen fertilizer consumption by county fell into four groups (Figure 13):

• Suwannee and Levy consumed more than 3,700 tons of N per year.

• Gilchrist, Alachua, Union, and Jefferson used between 2,000 and 2,500 tons per year.

• Madison, Columbia, and Lafayette used between 1,000 and 1,500 tons per year.

• Hamilton, Bradford, Dixie, and Taylor used less than 1,000 tons per year.

Phosphate fertilizer consumption fell into three groups (Figure 13):

• Levy and Union consumed 1,000 or more tons of P₂O₅ per year.

• Jefferson, Suwannee, Gilchrist, and Alachua used between 600 and 900 tons per year.

• Columbia, Madison, Hamilton, Lafayette, Bradford, Dixie, and Taylor used less than 400 tons per year.

Figure 13. 

Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer consumption (July 2002 through June 2003) in Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin area.

The amount of fertilizer used within a county is influenced by the amount and type of crops grown, and by the availability of animal manures that may be applied as an alternative source of N and P. It is no surprise that Levy, Suwannee, and Alachua counties are among the largest N and P fertilizer users since they are the counties with the greatest field crop acreage. Although Union county is small in land area, it is the fourth largest in terms of vegetable production within the Lower Suwannee Basin area. Fertilizer use there is relatively high because vegetable crops are intensively fertilized.

Summary

Florida's Lower Suwannee Basin area contains:

• A population just above one-half million that is skewed towards Alachua county.

• Topography ranging from flat to gently rolling.

• Sandy soils vulnerable to nutrient and agrichemical leaching, especially under conditions of excessive rainfall or irrigation.

• Mostly rural land that supports pine plantations, numerous small to medium-sized farms, and a few large farms.

• Forest, field crop, forage, animal, and nursery production that is economically important both locally and statewide.

• More than 75,000 acres of irrigated agriculture.

• Soils low in natural fertility that require high fertilizer rates to achieve maximum economic yield.

• Groundwater, surface water, and an ecosystem in need of environmental protection.

Therefore, educating the region's agricultural producers and other citizens about the best ways to manage water and nutrients will be essential to maintain water availability and improve its quality in the years to come.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.

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