Florida farmers tour Cuba, assess status of cows they donated

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HAVANA · John Parke Wright's 15,000-acre family ranch may have been expropriated after Fidel Castro's revolution, but these days the fifth-generation Naples cattle rancher wants to beef up future trade deals and forget about the past.

On Tuesday he and several other Florida ranchers toured the Niña Bonita farm on Havana's outskirts to see how Jersey heifers and New York Holsteins imported this summer are adapting to Cuba's subtropical climate.

"I have no desire to prop up any government or any military," Wright said. "The cows here only go toward milk for people. I'm not waiting for any change."

After a four-decade gap in Florida-Cuba cattle shipments, about 450 dairy cows arrived in Havana from Port Everglades and Jacksonville in July and August.

<http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-afarmers08oct08,0,2058412.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean>