Florida Orlando Mission 2010-2013: DESERET RANCHES

Sunday, February 20, 2011

DESERET RANCHES

The word "deseret" means honeybee and stands for industriousness and hard work. The Ranch uses a "beehive" for its cattle brand. Deseret Ranches covers 290,000 acres of land and is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is located in the Florida Orlando Mission in Central Florida. Currently Deseret employs about 90 full-time employees, including cowboys, equipment operators, citrus workers, office staff and others.
Ranching and Agriculture
RANCH FACTS
*290,000 acres
*Main operations: cattle and citrus
*Innovative agricultural practices
*Multiple-use philosophy
*Supplier of food for nearly 60 years
*About 44,000 cows
*About 1,300 bulls
CITRUS FACTS
*1,700 acres of citrus
*Oranges, Tangerines, Tangelos
*High efficiency irrigation systems
*advanced production to minimize fertilizer and chemical use
*237,000 trees
*Mostly production of juice oranges
We were able to tour the ranch

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FLORIDA ORLANDO MISSION HISTORY

Florida has a deep Mormon heritage, going back as far as 1843. Traveling elders were occasionally sent into Florida until the Florida conference was officially organized November 1, 1895, which conference was within the Southern States Mission. In 1937, the first chapel in central Florida was built in Orlando. In 1950, the church established what is now officially called Deseret Cattle and Citrus Ranch in Osceola County, southeast of Orlando. Today the Church owns 316,000 acres covering three counties, making it the largest cattle ranch in Florida. Orlando was the second Florida stake, and was organized on February 23, 1958.

On November 1, 1960 the Florida Mission was created out of the Southern States Mission. This was the fist mission for the State of Florida. The original Florida mission was divided into the Florida South Mission July 1, 1971, then later into the Ft. Lauderdale Mission (June 1974); the Tampa Mission being created in 1976, and the Jacksonville Mission in July of 1987.

The Florida Orlando Mission is now graced to have within its boundaries the Church Ranch and the first temple of the church in Florida, the Orlando Temple.