Florida Roots

New Florida Cattlemen President Cliff Coddington: ‘Let’s Ride Together’

by PAUL CATALA photo by UF Orange & New AEC Creative Lab

CCLIFF CODDINGTON RESTS HIS FEET in his home in Myakka City, but it’s on 9,000 acres on the northeastern corner of Sarasota County he kicks it with boots on.

Coddington is a sixth-generation Floridian who has spent his life the same way the generations before him did in the Sarasota and Manatee area – among cattle, bailing hay and cultivating and harvesting vegetables.

Those years of tending to livestock, along with his extensive cattleman’s experience, helped land him in the saddle as president of the Florida Cattlemen’s Association. Made up of about 3,700 to 4,700 members statewide — depending on the cattle market cycle — the FCA is a nonprofit organization established in 1934 devoted to promoting and protecting the ability of its members to produce and market their products.

Coddington, 62, says he’s enthusiastic about his new role, which started June 17.

He has been a member of the organization for 44 years. Coddington joined the local and state FCAs at 18 years old and has served on various committees and capacities, including animal health, as marketing chairman and Florida Beef Council chairman. He was the Florida representative on the national Cattlemen’s Beef Board from 2018 to 2021.

“Coming up through all those different things definitely helps, it helps a lot. The way our executive committee happens, when you say, ‘I will be an officer,’ you come in as secretary…and move up,” he says. “You make the commitment at the bottom, and learn all the aspects from the start until you actually come on as president of the association.”

A 1977 graduate of Southeast High School, Coddington began working his family ranch with his parents, Paul and Joan, both deceased, sisters Robin Gaford and Hope Freeman, and brother Paul Coddington Jr., raising cattle, growing vegetables and running a custom hay-baling operation. It’s a lifestyle that dates to a maternal great-greatgrandfather in the 1840s. Only Coddington and his sister, Hope, are still in agriculture; Paul retired as an agriculture mechanic fabricator.

The Coddington family sold the last of its 1,200acre ranch in 2018.

Currently, Florida ranks between 11th and 12th in the U.S. in cattle numbers, with about 950,000 beef and about 1.2 million dairy cows.

“Sometimes, the only time a rancher makes a lot of money is when he sells his land,” says Coddington, adding the FCA works to keep ranchers profitable through legislation that “affects how to do business to help us do business, not harm us.”

“We want to continue to grow. Sometimes we get pulled in different directions as an association. I can’t get a whole lot done by myself, but as an association pulling together, we can accomplish a lot.”

“It happens and people sell around. You’ve got your neighbors complaining about your cows and traffic gets so bad that you just say, ‘I’m done,’ ” he says. “If a cow gets out on the road, you and the cow get run over, not just the cow.”

Since 2005, Coddington has worked as general manager of Longino Ranch in Arcadia, dealing with cattle, citrus, Bahia grass, turfgrass and wetlands mitigation and preserving gopher tortoise habitats. The Longino family has owned the ranch, which was originally a turpentine operation, since 1934.

Prior to that, he worked in the cattle division of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, Lakewood Ranch for 27 years.

As FCA president, a one-year term, Coddington replaces Gene Lollis of Lake Placid. Coddington plans to continue to focus on areas of interest with which Lollis was involved, including private property rights, the control of animal diseases and Best Management Practices. Coddington says his vision for the FCA over the next year is to find ways to continue to grow membership through cooperative effort.

“You look back…our thing has always been property rights, water. Originally it was water control to get water off of Florida, now it’s conserving water to keep it on our lands longer to clean it for our neighbors and the coastal areas,” he notes.

As president, Coddington also oversees the five FCA Florida area representatives from the executive board. As a Florida cattle-associated entity, the FCA and those representatives work with the cattle industry to support the economy, provide beef and supply jobs.

Coddington’s theme for his term is “Let’s ride together.”

“We want to continue to grow. Sometimes we get pulled in different directions as an association. I can’t get a whole lot done by myself, but as an association pulling together, we can accomplish a lot,” he explains. “I want to make sure everyone is on the same page to pull together. We’ll have ag in this state for a very, very, very long time and it will change the way we do business today possibly, but there still will be ag in this state.” ag