PLANT CITY, Fla. (AP) — Dennis Carlton slowly rolls his pickup through a herd of hundreds of mother and baby cows meandering in the midmorning sun around the Audubon Ranch property north of Plant City.

“Come on there, get up,” Carlton gently calls out to a calf lying in the grass. “If they’re lying down, they’re not eating,” he jokes. As far as the eye can see, there are open fields of grass and cattle pacing about. Cute as they may be, speaking strictly financially, each calf represents $600 to $700 on the market, roughly twice what it was just two years ago.