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 &
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