ORLANDO, Fla. -- If it has to do with promoting agriculture in Orange County, it has to do with Bobby Beagles.

On top of his job raising cattle, he is president of the Orange County Farm Bureau and the Christmas Civic Organization, past president of the County's Agriculture Advisory Board and Cattlemen's Association, and a current member of the county's Animal Advisory Board.

"If I'm not home, I don't have to do honey-dos," he laughed. "That's what my wife will tell you. It gives me something to do, and I enjoy it. I enjoy working with people. Lots of people don't know their way around. If you know the right person, you can get a lot done. I can help."

Beagles knows his way around local and state government. He's spent 12 years working to get a new county agriculture building built. He was there in the planning, funding and building stages. It's now done: a state-of-the-art educational facility for all aspects of agriculture and more.

It was a lot of work, and local agriculture officials give Beagles most of the credit for pushing it through.

"It's those things that people don't know how to do where I can make a difference. I reckon I should've been a lobbyist, but they take money, and I don't want to," Beagles said.

Orange County is lucky to have Beagles in emergencies. For 15 years, he's headed up the sheriff's office's large-animal evacuation team. Most recently, he led the way rounding up stray livestock that had wandered off during the 2004 hurricanes.

Orange County agriculture officials called Beagles a man of action who is an excellent example of the difference one person can make.

Beagles said he's about ready to hand off some of the volunteer work he does, maybe heading up the large-animal rescue team, but listening to him talk about how much he loves doing everything he does makes you doubt he would give any of it up.

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