Okay, good afternoon committee members and other parties of interest. This oil presentation for RFP 26-00069, Lower Green Swamp Cattle Grazing Lease, is being held in part by means of communications media technology. Active participation will be for committee members and presenting firms only. A recording of the meeting will be made available to the public and all other interested parties. Please be advised that the Kona silence is still in effect. All meetings and correspondence must include me. My name is Ethan Kersey, and I'm the buyer for this project. Again, for the record, this meeting is being recorded and will be posted online at a future date. At this time, I'll ask each committee member to reintroduce themselves for the record, beginning with the committee chair. Forest Turboville, Director, Conservation, Environmental Lands Management Department. Allie Williams, Small Farms Extension Agent, Hillsborough County Extension. Ken Bradshaw, Hillsborough County Conservation and Environmental Lands Management. I'm Steve Ramiam at Hillsborough County Environmental Lands. Ross Dickerson, Division Manager, Environmental Lands Management. Aaron Kordius, Procurement Engagement Coordinator of Procurement Services in Hillsborough County. Thank you, guys. Presenters, if you would, please introduce yourself for the record the first time you speak today as well. Our presenters will have a total of 45 minutes, 15 minutes for their presentation, and 30 minutes for Q&A. The committee is advised that they may ask clarifying questions regarding any information provided in the firm's written proposal or that the firm brings up during today's oral presentation and interview. I will be timing your presentation and will signal to you when there are two minutes remaining. Immediately following the presentation, we will move on to the Q&A portion, where I will also track your time. So with that, Rollhart, I will turn it over to you to begin your presentation. I am Carly Turner. I'm the registered agent for Rollhart Cattle. This is Richard Rollison. He is co-owner. This is Travis Hardy. He is the other co-owner. And I'm going to share my screen with you. Are you able to see my screen? We are. Okay, great. So the first thing I want to mention is that we have the swine dealer license that we had noted in our RFP originally. What we want to say about that is the lease and the RFP required that all the lessee shall maintain, all current and approved, and will have all required licenses and permits. The swine dealer license is a permanent card. It is required whenever you are trapping and transporting feral swine. That is from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Here is an email for our licenses that says that you are required to be transporting them to the location. It is a licensed establishment, FWC hunting preserve, an alligator farm, or an FDACS approved feral swine holding facility, which we have authenticated our own for. The FDACS flyer with the license requires that all hog traps must be done, and everyone that traps land on non-private lands is required to have this license. There was some clarification needed in the evaluation of our first RFP, where there were some committee members that stated they were not sure if we were going to be selling the pigs we caught on the property, and about if they would be a hunt club or organized removal to have that license. But as the RFP required, you have to have this license to be able to use the traps that we mentioned we operate with. Autobahn did mention they use traps, but they do not actually hold this license. So in terms of the RFP, it is a required license that we possess, and they do not. Moving on to clarify some things about the leased and owned land. The RFP stated that it shall be of similar size and scope, and it shall be self-operations on our land and or leased land with others. It was and or, not otherwise, we were docked a few points by other members of the committee by saying that we did not list any self-owned land. The reason why we did not was because it specifically stated to include scope of similar size, anything we have that we own ourselves, they're both Hillsborough County residents as well as I am, we don't have to do an annual report, deal with a committee, deal with all of the requirements of AU, gathering public interest, reporting everything, and self-land that doesn't exist, so these were the most comparable in scope and services as requested by the RFP. We also noted that for each of these leased lands, the AU number varies, the requirements vary, the subcontractors were allowed to use varies for prescribed burns. Our current leases require us to use the Department of Forestry for prescribed burns because they are through the Florida Department of Forestry or through the state, that's why we had listed them as well. Additionally, we are not having multiple employees, the owners handle and manage all of the leases themselves, they are personally present. Whenever you get someone who has thousands and thousands extending, as you noted for Audubon, it's hard for the owner to have that personal touch and be able to manage that many or physically be there and rely on others to do so, or it goes unmanaged. As we saw in the site visit of Audubon, it was mentioned that there were fences that were not maintained, it was fences, there were cattle in undesignated areas. We have not had any of those complaints. We're not all over the state in over 40,000 acres, which it's physically impossible for one person who is not maintained. We are responsible to personally manage those. Additionally, for the pesticide license, did not state in the RFP what type of license, what category, did not state anything. It required we have a proper business arrangement. It was not mentioned in your evaluation. It was not read. It lists here saying that our subcontractor will maintain all licenses required. When we are told of what the required category would be, since we do not take possession for over a year, the licenses are only good for a year. By the time that we were able to take possession, he could obtain whatever subcategory that would be needed. In addition to the invasive species and questions about that treatment, in the same subcontractor agreement we provided as exhibit B to our original document, it lists in here the scope of their services, the types that would be treating, a dead zone that would be listed. It also lists in here that it would have 2% greater average coverage. It would mention in here that there would be extended coverage of 5%. Everything that was said to be missing in our proposal was in this subcontractor agreement with a contractor we use for other properties. Additionally, there is questions of it should be commercial or private private applicator is someone who has to be owned or rented by the license person or that employer. A subcontractor is not an employee. They're their own entity, which means it would have to be a required to be a commercial applicator because that is someone who has done for money, who is not just traded in agricultural commodities for such. Additionally, we have another subcontractor that's his active license. It is a drone ranch solution. They are an aerial herbicide application that we do use for leases. We just got another lease through the Florida Department of Forestry that allows us to use aerial herbicide applications. We use him and we have pictures of him on our current lease right here. Doing that as well, which is something else that we did not list because all it required was that we had 1 to list with an agreement. We don't have that agreement with him. We've had it with our reliable spreader. That's what we provided. Lastly, our success was something that was said was not completely dated or completely evaluated. Also, the calf crop percentage was something that there were some members that had some questions. I provided the definition of what the calf crop percentage meant. It's the percentage of calves weaned divided by the number of cows in the breeding herd at the start of the season listed here by the University of Florida. Actually, it states here that well managed herds have a calf crop of more than 90% while poorly managed herds may actually have less than 75% of a calf crop and that it is the most important aspect of commercial beef production, not just beef production, but successful cattle operations. So, there was few statements in the last evaluation where it didn't say how or why it was successful. The percentage of calf cow was a little bit confusing and wanted to provide a little bit of our ranges here from 75 to 95%, which the University of Florida then list as that would be successful. And that would be what you would want for a well producing cattle operation to be successful. I also want to say that for our equipment list, there was something that wasn't noted as much. We don't have someone living on site because we don't have the site for that to happen. So getting credit for having someone living on site is something we are not able to compare with our other properties as the state park and the Department of Forestry would not allow someone to live on site. So being docked for not having someone on site of we can't compare to not having that ability of this property or knowing if he's going to take that house to have someone there. So being docked for that is not a proper evaluation of something that we don't have the ability to say we possess. We do have an equipment list that is overly extensive not sure what he possess, but I guarantee it is not comparable to what we list for equipment. It's also in house. It is also owned and they are all here in Hillsborough County. So it will not be across the whole state of Florida. They are here. They can be responded to and just like with the swine license that is required. He does not possess. It says within 24 hours. They have to be noted we are here Hillsborough County residents not going anywhere and would be able to do so. And I will tap to the gentleman next to me to be able to talk a little bit more about this success at the specific properties to eliminate that confusion. So I'm Travis Hardy. You asked about success. We took over our Fdex property down in Arcadia, which is a complete mess. We ended up going in, we drilled wells, installed miles of water line to take care of water troughs. This will keep the erosion from the ponds down. It seems to help tremendously. We had to go in the, the roads were first couple of times we went down the roads. The roads were so bad that it was actually breaking the springs on our trailers. Um, we spent about a week cleaning the roads up, which, uh, not only protected our equipment, but, uh, help forestry tremendously. And we continue to upkeep on the roads. Uh, we had some washed out culverts down there. We replaced culverts. Um, our hay field, uh, was covered in about six foot of, uh, broom. Um, we got the broom cleaned up. We have, uh, we have, uh, tremendous results coming out of that hay field. Um, this just, uh, the spraying, uh, so our, our kill on the Kogan grass. And, uh, you of all people know that Kogan grass is adrift. Um, it comes from anywhere up to two miles away. So where the Kogan grass come from, I have no idea cause there's none other around us. Um, but we have a 90% kill on the Kogan. Um, it's just, uh, that's something we have to stay on top of. Uh, it's, it's imperative that we stay on top of the code. Um, we've never had any, we've never had any complaints from any of our current, uh, landowners or less or at least source all annual reports have been filed all meetings with the property manager have been done. They have their personal cell phones. They also have mine. If there is an emergency, they know how to contact us. We've never been given written up. We've never missed a requirement. We've been renewed by every lease we've ever had. Um, and just winning another one, not even by having, you know, the most money, but just by what we've done at the current Florida Department of Forest release, we were renewed. Um, that's not an annual renewal that is an eight year contract. So we can't say that we've been getting annual renewals that some of our competition can say that about themselves. We've also never had any problems with fences, never had any issues of them saying fences weren't maintained and never having cattle in areas that were undesignated for such. Um, I'm Richard Rawlison. Uh, we we've had Alify State Park for 20 years and just is, is, uh, being renewed as we speak. Um, for another 5, it's 5, it's a 5 every time we renew it. Um, when we started there, I don't know if y'all have ever seen Alify State Park, uh, but the front side of the park on 39 is a lot better than what the backside is, which is what we leased. Um, we leased it with no fences in place. Uh, we had to fence the whole place. Uh, I could look back on my records. It's several miles, uh, 20, 30 miles of fence we had to put up, um, cross fences so we could rotate grazing. Um, cogan grass is terrible there. Smut grass is terrible there. We have absolutely zero subtle apples there because all our cattle were quarantined for 30 days at a different site before they were put there. Um, till this day, we don't have a subtle apple there. Um, but as you know, cogan grass, there's, uh, 3000 acres there, uh, and mines all the way around us. So it's a battle on that. Um, we've had it, like I said, for 20 years, fixing going 20, renewing for 25. Um, fences, never had a cow out, never been a cow anywhere it wasn't supposed to be. Um, uh, I don't know much more I can say about it. Uh, we, we, we rotate grazing and on this, on this new renewal, they want, we're, we're going to put in some wells for water. Um, because it has the old, it has the old mine pits and they don't want no erosion around the, around the ponds for the cows walking down and making cow trails. So we're putting in water troughs so the cattle can come and come have fresh water. Um, so that, that, that cuts back on erosion and around the ponds and around any wetlands areas or. Uh, because we know cattle are going to drink fresh water before they will go to a pond or any other place. Um, additionally, our current leases that we listed for experience are all. Have public presence and every single 1 of them, um, that is something that is comparable and why we listed those for our experience. So we've never had any issues with the public. We make sure that the fences are secure. Make sure that the cattle are not going to be a rogue. What? You know, they're around us. We're there every weekend. Our families are there. Our kids are around them. They are not going to be counted to worry about charging at, you know, people that want to pet them or look by as the public is experienced, um, with that. Uh, that's just another, um, add on to, um, the success of the current leases and to clear up some of that confusion provide more of a reason of why we did list those and why we shouldn't have been docked for just listing lease land. Additionally, um, to being able to say that our success is based on our renewal, um, completely, uh, was tailored to how they what the RFP asked. Another mention was in your swine, the dealer card. It was mentioned that you thought we were going to have organized hunts or to be selling the hogs. Not a lot of money in selling hogs for one, uh, the license is required and the organized hunts is something that was in your RFP stating that they'd have to be approved by the county if they were going to be done. We actually have those with the wounded warrior project at our Department of force releases where they do do organized hunts that we make sure we are not there. We make sure that the property is okay for the soldiers that are well deserved to go there and hunt. Thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Just have to cut you off because it's my team and we're going to move into the Q&A here. I'm going to open up to the committee. They can ask questions kind of all around the room. Um, it'll be 30 minutes and we'll start off first questions. OK, so my question is kind of long, so I'll read it twice. Um, what key factors guide your approach to land stewardship and conservation when making your grazing management or forage management decisions? So that's what key factors guide your approach to land stewardship and conservation when making grazing management or forage management decisions. On, on, on, on the grazing, we, I mean, we stock a place to what, what they, what they recommend. And if it doesn't take care of them, we, we keep an eye on it. We keep what, what forage we got, what grass we got, we keep an eye on it. If it does not take care of that many cattle or that many per acre, we reduce, we reduce it down to what it takes care of. Um, as you know, um, like, um, like Dallafi State Park, uh, it takes a lot of ground cause it's, it's, it's, it's 50% pasture, 50% coconut grass. So it's, it's a, it's a battle to keep it balanced to what it will take care of and what it will not take care of. Uh, we're not into overgrazing, uh, um, abusing a place. I mean, we take care of them. We, I mean, we fertilize, we spray, we rotate cattle. We make sure they're not overgrazed because overgrazing doesn't do us any good. And it does not do the landowner or whoever we have at least from any good either. Another key factor would also be the specifics of the lease itself. The current lease that we have for the Department of Forestry, their main key factor is mowing, making sure that fence lines are maintained, making sure that the grass is mowed down to, that is their main concern. That is their main concern. So that is another factor. It is tailored to the lease and to the lessor itself of what the key factors would, would also be the needs of the land. That is the most important thing. No piece of property in Florida is identical. And I feel like having key factors would be the land itself. It will tell you the lessor will tell you what it needs, what they want, what they expect, but you won't know exactly what key factors until you are there and physically present on the land site visit of Autobahn. The fences need to be clear. Cattle needs to be in the designated areas. There is tall grass. There's mowing that needs to be done. There is obviously a risk of some fences where cattle have gotten out and there has been incidents with vehicles that it would be a main concern of. Lower Green Swamp. And we have never had, we've never had a cow out on the highway or anybody got hurt or anybody got hit or anything like that. Never in our record ever. What key factors to approach to land management and pasture management that you look for? I mean us, so we also get our ground tested. So there's a lot of times, you know, we may need, you know, dolomite, we may need lime, so getting the ground tested is imperative. We also believe that using burning is also imperative. It was stated that, you know, we sub out the burning. Well, any more of the liability of in-house burning and it getting away, especially right now, look at the fires that's going out. Luckily, we're in a burn ban, but it's imperative. I think it's great to use forestry. I don't go to a doctor to get my teeth fixed. I let qualified people do the qualified job. There's certain things that you can handle and you let the professionals do their job. So especially when it comes to burning. So that's why we use forestry. And like on some of our other properties, we're not allowed, we're not allowed for forestry to plow the lines. We cannot use a fire plow because it leaves a ditch. So we have to disk them and then we come back with a rototiller and rototill them smooth. Be eight foot wide all the way around every fence because we're not allowed to use a fire plow because it leaves a rut and it starts, if it rains, you know, water runs down and then it starts a ditch and then it just keeps on going. So we run a disk and we run a, behind that we run a rototiller. So when it's done, you can drive your truck and drive your side by side, you can walk it where you need. Another factor that guides the approach is also meeting with the land manager, you know, the person we would answer to or deal with for the annual reports. Having them tell us their concerns, what they see driving through the property every day, things that they note, having them on our side, being close with them, being able for them to call us and say, Hey guys, can you grade the roads driving in as miserable for us as well? That is another key factor is the land manager and us having a relationship where they can spot a problem that they've seen before we even got there. And us be able to take their advice or us to make recommendations of something that we think would work and to work together to make it the best solution. What you've done forever isn't always the best answer, but sometimes the new approach is better. Otherwise, something that's been tried and true that works as well. And that's what we would like to use the manager of the property as a key factor would be their expertise and what they see. Thank you. Ken, any questions? No questions or at least not yet anyway. Okay. Steve, anything? I don't have any questions on this time. Ross, any questions? I do. So on your proposal, some of your references say that you own the cows and other ones don't mention that. Do you run some of these as just a rancher or do you own all the cattle that are in these references? We own all the cattle in those references. We have several. The references we give you, we own all the cattle on them. We lease all the land. We have a cow-calf operation. One of our places, it's also a cow-calf operation, but we also precondition. We win a lot of our cows. We win all our keeping heifers. We feed them. We precondition them. We grow them. They never leave Hillsborough County. The ones for Hillsborough County never leave Hillsborough County. They stay here. Our keeping heifers, replacement heifers, they all live their life right here. Our steers, depending on the market, we might send them, we might send them to, we might send them out west, put them on feed, keep them to the end. We might sell them here. We might sell them at the local market. We might put them on video. It's just where we think the best price is at the time for what we got. Like I said, we manage the Alify Park, which is not the greatest place. Land-wise, Arcadia, it's a good place. It works good. Over here in Wymama, it's even better. That's where, that's where we precondition everything. But we still have, there's cow and calf, mama cows over too. But we're, we have a, with a farmer over there, we have a basis there for a cover, they plant a cover crop and we cut the silage off of it and store it there on the place and mix a little grain with it. That's why we're able to have a precondition yard there. The silage saved us a lot, a lot of money. Not too many people can do that. If you had to buy straight grain, wouldn't work. Couldn't do it. The silage cuts, we're making a, we're making a 12% feed for about a buck 50 a ton, between a buck 50, $150, $200 a ton. Or if you had to buy it across the counter, it's gonna be $4,500. So that works for us here. That's all I have. Yep. No questions for me. That's good. Allison, you got any more? Okay. Okay. Thank you guys for joining us this afternoon. As you know, we'll be reconvening here in 35 minutes at 4 o'clock to, to discuss. Feel free to watch that and please monitor UNIF for future updates related to the solicitation. That is all. I just have a question. Did you need any additional information on clearing up the swine license agreement or subcontractor attachment? We had said in there, or do you need that? Any clarification on that? I know there was some issues of clarifying that the 1st time that it was evaluated. And I just want to make sure we have explained ourselves well enough. I know 15 minutes wasn't a lot to have you read the literature. So we tried to just provide the letters from the government agencies themselves. I did not think we needed any documentation at this time at this time. No, no additional documentation. Perfect. I just wanted to make sure that that was clarified enough to that was a couple issues. We noted the 1st time. There's one thing I want to touch base on. We don't, besides the burning and the fertilizing, which is the fertilizing spray is the same contractor and the burning is another contractor. Everything else we do working cattle, building fence, fixing roads, bailing the hay. We do all that ourselves where nobody else does all that. We do all that ourselves. It's all in-house. There's not a bunch of people coming and going. It's pretty much family and in-house besides those two things. Well, I greatly appreciate you guys spending a few minutes with us. As I said, feel free to watch again at 4 o'clock today and we'll talk with you soon. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.