Billionaire Frank Stronach in Hot Water over Cattle Ranch Project

Aug 15, 2012

15,000 Beef Cattle Ranch Under Scrutiny Over Water Extraction

Cattle ranching has become Frank Stronach’s new business venture. The Canadian billionaire and founder of Magna International, is in the midst of a controversial bid to house a 15,000 beef cattle operation in north-central Florida. The contention lies in how much natural resources it will take to keep the cattle operation going. It’s been suggested that it will extract 49 million liters of water daily from the state’s Sliver Springs water aquifer.

Stronach’s Adena Springs Ranch would be modelled utilizing state-of-the art technology and management practices such as rotational grazing, abattoir operations for his organic grass fed beef operation. The ranch is expected to scale upwards to 25,000 acres and utilize more ground water than the population of the City of Ocala at 55,000.

The proposed bid has outraged environmental groups who are deeply concerned with the sustainability of the City’s water and the overall environmental impact due to the mega ranch. The Florida Conservation Coalition is one of the leaders in the protest against the bid noting “water is the lifeblood of Florida's economy and essential to our health and quality of life. We must stand up and speak out for our water-ways, or we risk losing them."

The Adena ranch has until Aug. 26 to renew their application for the proposed 49.2 million liter per day water extraction permit. The regulatory agency who will either decline or approve the bit will look at "whether the water use is in the public interest" and whether it would "harm other water users or the environment,” said Hank Largin in a statement.

Adena management maintains that the proposed bid would provide Florida with good economic and environmental benefits.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.