DRAPER KING COLE RANCH 1988

DRAPER KING COLE RANCH

In 1985 a hot spot of concern for environmental authorities, the massive operations of

King Cole Ranch and Draper Canning Company , is now a national model for

“Coordinated Resource Management”.

The waste water from the vegetable processing plant in Milton which once polluted the

nearby streams is now irrigating vegetable growing fields and the vegetable waste has

become a slurry added to the food rations of King Cole Ranch cattle, which once were

allowed to stand knee deep in muddy muck and wander at will into streams and ponds are

now grazing in fenced in pastures and landscaped feeding lots.

The result is an efficient operation that protects the environment and keeps the ecological

cycle revolving.

John E. Wilson, III, secretary of Delaware Department of Natural Resources and

Environmental Control urged Draper officials to seek solutions to their pollution problems

rather than face penalties. A management team was formed, included Draper King Cole

management, DENREC, the Conservation District , Extension workers, Soil Conservation

and Forestry people of Delaware Ag Department , and outside consultants. Fourteen months

of “planning parties” followed which cost both state and federal programs.

Draper Canning founded in 1880 and today is one of the largest food processing plants in the

nation, first added beef cattle in 1960 and became the largest cattle ranch in Delaware .

and hires real cowboys. The 800 hundred acre ranch is home to 30,000 cattle at one time for

about 300 days after being purchased in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley a kept until market.

The herd is feed well on home grown grains, corn, vegetable slurry, mixed with molasses.

The Milton Cannery uses water from six wells and employees 700 people , purchases raw

product from Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and 6000 acres of Delaware farm. Land.

Abstract August 19, 2018, by HARRISON H from Wilmington Morning News,

Monday , August 22, 1988 , Jane Brooks, staff writer. for Facebook &