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 “I told myself if I ever get myself out of this mess I’m nowhere near going to have anything to do with farming. And I didn’t intend to, really, but life throws you a lot of loops. As it turns out it’s been a great life and I’ve truly enjoyed it.”

When Alto Straughn was a young boy, he had no aspirations of becoming a farmer. Growing up in a poverty stricken area, most of the community farmed corn, cotton, peanuts and watermelon. Straughn’s parents raised him and his four sisters on a small farm in rural Walton County. The five Straughn siblings graduated high school and three of them went on to graduate college.

For Alto, there was no discussion of college until two months before his high school graduation. Three of his teachers convinced him to pursue higher education, and at first Alto was opposed to the idea due to the lack of money. It was the inspiration of his high school Vo-Ag teacher who led him to pursue higher education.

Alto graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor of science degree in 1952. During his time at the university, he met a girl, Patrecia, who was also an animal science major.

“In June of ’57 I got a master’s degree and she got a bachelor’s degree, and the next week we got married,” Straughn said.

 For a couple of years after college, Straughn worked for Patrecia’s father on his watermelon farm in Alachua County. One of his friends called to tell him about a 4-H and livestock Extension job opening in Marion County. He took the job in 1963 and worked as an Extension agent for three years before the opportunity to pursue his PhD in Extension education at the University of Wisconsin. 

After returning to Florida, Straughn accepted a position at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) as the administrative assistant where he helped run the statewide Extension service for 27 years. After retiring in 1989, he took an interest in farming, specifically blueberries. He spent a lot of time with the staff that ran the blueberry breeding program at UF. He had developed a good relationship with the program’s personnel and used his knowledge to grow some blueberries of his own.

In the early 90s Straughn started with a variety called High Bush. At the time, Rabbit Eye was the recommended variety to grow but takes longer to ripen and is a tougher berry. In the late 90s, Alto expanded his blueberries to cover 65 acres. At the time, almost two-thirds of all blueberries grown in Florida were grown in Alachua County. In 1993, UF/IFAS came to Alto and asked if he would plant their research berries on his farm. Each year, Straughn plants about five acres of berries for the university and keeps desired varieties. Blueberry bushes are kept for roughly ten years before they stop producing berries.

 The Straughns turned over the primary operations of Straughn Farms to his grandsons in July 2016. Although Straughn still spends time in their blueberry fields, he and his wife enjoy spending time with their grandchildren and great grandchildren.