Lake County commissioners called the first-ever Agricultural Lands Workshop to help provide solutions for preserving the county’s rich farming history. But instead they got an earful from growers and farmers about the challenges that have forced dozens of families to sell their land for development.

“Labor is the biggest challenge for us because we’re very specialized and labor-intensive in our farming,” Austin Spivey, production manager at Cherrylake Farm in Groveland, said. “I think it takes one person per five acres for a whole year to perform all the different tasks. We have 720 acres, so that’s like 143 people we have to employ just to produce the crop, and that doesn’t get it to market, doesn’t get it to the loading dock, doesn’t sell it.”

Spivey said Cherrylake has been innovative in looking to automate and mechanize production, but is struggling with securing domestic labor for the farm.

Groveland’s Cherrylake Tree Farm has relied on migrant workers with temporary H2-A visas during the farm’s busy season. Tom Frost of TG Frost Land and Cattle said there are plenty of hands willing to work his cattle ranch, but a lack of affordable land is putting a major strain on the business.

“We have to buy about $5,000 an acre to do our job and make money at it,” he said. “We’ll buy it for more than that obviously, we’ve been buying it for more than that, but that means it’s going to be a labor of love. A lot of it is out of love, we definitely need more land and more access to land.”

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson visited the county to give a larger state perspective on the industry and listen to agricultural land concerns from farmers like Frost and Spivey.

Informing Simpson of specific issues raised to him by farmers and growers in the area, Commissioner Kirby Smith asked directly how to curb unwanted development.

“You’ve got to change the will of those local municipalities for one,” Simpson advised. “Number two would be to buy development rights in and around those cities where they don’t have the appetite to continue doing it.”

He outlined a number of state initiatives, such as Florida Forever and the Rural and Family Lands Protection Act, that can offer millions of dollars in conservation easements to working farms.

Commissioner Anthony Sabatini has suggested directing proceeds from the $50 million Lake Forever bond referendum, which voters approved last November, to purchase agricultural easements.

Several rural areas of the county, former ranches and citrus groves, are currently in the process of selling and are being prepared for development.

In October, the American division of Canadian homebuilder GT Homes bought the swath of land in Lake County’s Wellness Way area stretching from U.S. 27 to the Orange County line for $165 million. The land includes the former 1,769-acre Arnold Groves & Ranch and the adjacent 552-acre Roper properties, which GT USA is combining into a single master-planned community called Panther Run.

Last November, Taylor Morrison paid $60 million for the McKinnon Groves property in the Wellness Way area after commissioners approved plans for a 658-home gated community.

Earlier this year, family-owned Long and Scott Farms —owners of nearly 700 acres of farmland on the Lake-Orange county line in Zellwood — are seeking entitlements to build a new golf community for seniors.

Long and Scott Farms are longtime growers of sod and produce — such as their trademarked Zellwood Sweet Corn — with no intentions of ditching the industry completely.

Farm president Hank Scott told GrowthSpotter last month that his decision to sell was based on surrounding development and a desire to pass the farm on to his family after decades in the business.

He plans to find a less populated location and continue the family farming tradition further away from burgeoning development projects in both Lake and Orange Counties.

“Well, we got the same issue as many in that the traffic’s got pretty bad for us,” Scott said. “We’re on both sides of Jones Avenue, due to the road, so our slow tractors and trucks crossing that road are quite dangerous. We picked some property that’s a little more rural and a little easier to work with, so we can start fresh and hope the kids can do a better job and continue their careers.”

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at jwilkins@orlandosentinel.com or 407-754-4980. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.