Farmers Permit for Shooting Deer

I heard that Over 100 deer were killed during the summer on Herefords farm in Gurley and was wondering if anyone knew this to be true ? Seems like a large number and wonder how the DCNR would come up with a number of deer to shoot and go to waste.

tell you the truth it's none of my business or yours .

a pest is a pest , don't matter if its a rat in the dog food or deer predating crops .

i know a few farms that have slaughtered deer for that reason . one farm done it because the people that least it wouldn't do it . so the farmer killed every thing where as the hunting club could've killed just does . we killed 30 deer out of one field off 80 in macon county after season one year . that year the deer ate 15 acres of 65 ac cotton field .

course we killed over 500 armadillo one year too lol

True

True words right there. We love our hobby of deer hunting, but farming is a livelihood. Farmers are going use every means at their disposal to protect that livelihood. Can't really blame them.

Back during the soybean hayday, in the early 70's, I've seen almost a hundred shot in one night in just a square mile area.

Back then, they went to the Sheriff's Boy's Ranch for food.

A hundred deer can do a lot of crop damage. Especially when soybeans are busting the ground. When those first two leaves are eaten on an emerged plant, it dies.

They also browse on the blooms. That's crop killer.

Too bad they don't just keep the season open where that's necessary like the law says. The law don't say anything about a stinking permit to kill them and let them rot.

sore subject here we have a farmer that has a 40 acre field just north of us about a quarter mile ,so he lets the boy that lives in the house next to the field do his field control ,only problem is he baits them close to the house so he can get easy shots under a light he put out he killed 68 this year and 70 something last year ,if you have crop damage is one thing but baiting them to the crop field is another ,neither year he harvested the field i guess he just turned it in on his crop insurance,burns my arse,by the way this is his only field in this area his others are 15 to 20 miles north and they are 100 acre plus

It DAMN sure IS my business !!!

Them deer don't belong to that farmer and he's got no more legal right to shoot them than you or me or Uncle Ted.

49er is absolutely right in that argument, the DCNR is clearly violating the law by issuing any individual the permission to shoot OUR deer out of season!

Legally speaking, I have just as much rightful authority to walk onto the farmer's property and shoot a deer, without his permission, as he has to shoot any of those deer, out of season.

That's right.

They dang sure don't mind taking people's money to lease the hunting rights!

I have been on some 'depredation' shoots, too.
Don't lie to anyone and say that it is an indiscriminate neccessity. It is a VERY abused program in many areas.

so what would you suggest the farmer do ?? maybe,,,i guess since they are our deer we should pay the farmer from a tax for the damage .

i agree 100% - all it would take is a 2-part tag system and each county divided into sections - buck and doe harvests would be reported and the deer herd in each section could be micro-managed - too bad some people are opposed to it - seems like it would be a lot better than wasting them

btw , i'm not a big fan of summer hunts but you gotta do what you gotta do .

I would suggest he invite more people to hunt, during the legal hunting season, perhaps even "for free".
I know that's a foreign concept these days, FREE, but it worked for a bunch of farmers in Chilton County when I was growing up.

Allow Public Access to his property or charge a small trespass fee for Daily Rights.

NOT lease the property and allow hunters to think they can manage the deer herd and then shoot them all at night out of season.

As far as taxes........Farmers are already subsidized with our tax money. They also have the ability to buy Crop Insurance.

I seriously doubt that is true as thier grandaughters husband hunts the farm and he would have a fit if that was true. There are a lot of deer and some big deer on the farm but I don't see them killing that many.

when you were growing up ,,,,, thats a key part

yeah . i havn't seen that work out to well . first they tear up the edges of the fields and the fields with their four wheel drives and four wheelers to where you have to have a tractor to get around the fields . they leave gates open so the farmer has to round up cows all the time . on top of that they don't kill what needs to be killed . great idea but i ain't seen it work .

they guy i worked for had four wheeler trails through his oat fields at the end of one hunting season .

stuff like this is why farmers have stopped free hunting . even some farms with clubs won't killed the deer they are ask to kill .

ok i got nothing against people with money . but they rent up these lands just to have a place to go . then they don't hunt like they should . so what does a farmer do , they take the lease money and have summer hunts

No, not quite. I didn't say anything about a tag system, and the law doesn't either.

The problem is caused by closing the antlerless season and having a daily bag limit on them when the season is open in areas where there is a severe crop depredation problem. Notice that it doesn't even have to be a whole county. It can be a part of the county where the season is open.

Then, if the farmers want the deer killed, they can either do it themselves or let more people hunt to get it done. If not, they can live with their problem.

i don't think you know how Crop Insurance works . it does not pay out like most think it does . if a farmer loses a 100,000 on crop lose the Insurance does not pay a 100,000.

if i was told right the farmers have no choice they have to buy the Insurance.

farmers don't get the gov money people think they get

so , you saying do it this way or that way and to hell with the land owners rights . lol

sorry 49er - i hadn't posted in a while - i forgot you're that guy into legalism - complain about everything and squeeze the letter of the law instead of taking action and implementing the procedures to help rectify the problem

hers another idea . since the deer belong to the state the state should remove the deer that are causeing the damage. plus pay the farmer for the damage their deer caused . i mean hell if my cow eats the garden down the road i'd have to pay .

Huh? The law in place is the procedure to rectify the problem - the DCNR just isn't working within the established framework.

Several posted about the monies farmers were paid to "subsidize" their income in the event of crop loses. Last time I looked, not many farms left in Colbert County so these monies are not sufficient to cover incurred losses. I closed my farming operations in the early 90's after losing my rear end for years. Now I lease all my properties in Al and TN and let the hunters "subsidize" me now. Best move I ever made.

Exactly. It has nothing at all to do with my personality or what I do or do not do.

I'm saying the law should be put into practice instead of the current policy the DCNR cooked up on it's own. The law specifically calls for the landowner's approval.

If the landowner wants to try to kill them all himself, he can have at it since the season would be open to allow it. If he wants others to help, he can still decide who he wants to help.

So how is that a violation of landowner's rights?

I've said all I'm going to say in this thread. I promised Skinny I would do better.

Ya'll have at it.

I think that everybody is overlooking one thing.....

ALL legal means should be utilized and failure proven BEFORE any steps outside of the existing laws are taken.

Restricting access and accepting monetary payments for the hunting rights and THEN asking permission to shoot them at night (or at least the ones that even bother to get the actual permit!) is hypocritical at best and accepting the role as a poacher of the State's wildlife at worst!

Hogwild ,,, the best advice i can give people that hunta active farm is to work close with the farmer . if the farmer is having damage then the club needs to take more deer from that area or field .

in most cases if they work with the farmer the farmer will work with them .

That is good advice.

But, often the farmer has a whole different viewpoint on deer than the leasor.
They don't communicate on the same plane.

Also, the farmer needs to realize that the lease money could be viewed as compensation for Crop Damage.... + with most leasors, they actually improve the property and take very good care of the roads as compared to just random access by locals.

It should be a Win/Win situation for both parties if viewed in that aspect.
Most farmers just don't care about deer; and have no regard for those who do.

I think, to a degree, we already do that through subsidies for yield loss.

I knew some farmers, back in the days when they had to shoot them and let them lay where they fell(do they still do that?), that would gut shoot them with a small bore rifle so they would run back into the woods and die. Now I am highly against that sort of crap, damage or no damage.

243shooter I agree with you on the shooting and let them lay. I have always herd that according to the law they had to leave them?? not sure. I think they need to be used for something.

Far as the farmer letting you hunt, the farmer doesn't always have a say so in who hunts because prob most of the land that is farmed is rented to the farmer. Now i know farmers own land of their own and that is a diffrent story. I agree on letting some one hunt if the deer are a problem. I have saw alot of deer damage to soybeans and even total damage to a cotton crop when it is in its early growth stage. But we do need to remember if the farmer owns the land it is his and can do what he wants as long as it is legal.

Crop insurance is just like any other insurance it Never covers like it should.

Most of all The Farmers need to survive, because we don't need to depend on China for food like we do for most everthing else!! $.02

if leasing is working to the benefit of him , he'll work with them . if the farmer won't work with me i would not lease from him , most i know would . these after season hunts are a hassle in every way .

beaver really caused us the most trouble . believe it or not they eat grown cotton and back the water up in the fields. in one field of soybean geese caused more damage than deer did .

so i agree some farmers are rough on the wildlife , hell they have to be at times .

lol ,,, insurance !!!!

yeah it's like wrecking a 10 year old car . if its a lot of damage they total it and pay you nothing but it'll cost you 30,000 dollars to replace it .

The state of Ohio has a web site where as they match hunters with farmers who are experiencing crop depredation by deer. The farmer is issued extra doe permits that can be given to hunters to use on the farmers land.....Its a great system as all deer have to be checked and the state knows what has been killed and in which county they have been killed.

FYI...I do some depredation work for some local u-pick vegetable farms and you are suppose to leave the deer lay....however the game warden here says we can haul them off the fields but they had best not be gutted or have any horns removed.

The Hereford Farm I believe , have pay dove hunts every year so I don't know why they wouldn't consider having pay deer hunts during the season to help with there problem. Killing deer and letting them rot is just wrong no matter what the reason.

beaver really caused us the most trouble . believe it or not they eat grown cotton and back the water up in the fields. in one field of soybean geese caused more damage than deer did .

so i agree some farmers are rough on the wildlife , hell they have to be at times . [/quote]

yep beaver can really screw a field up, I've had my experience with them dang things in cotton fields.
Hogs are also a big problem. In north al where i was raised there hasn't been any around, but a bunch of people thought it would be cool to turn them out so they could hunt them. This has not helped anything. They were not thinking of surrounding landowners.

I'm not a fan of shooting them and letting them rot but that's the only choice the law gives.I lease from a farmer and he doesn't shoot deer off my lease as long as we take a good # for him.He does lay them down on his other tracts though and he killed 100+ this summer,did it help ...No. We planted a 150ac field twice and it was ate down twice,he's thinking about getting out of it if he doesn't get a good crop this summer.Oh yeah even after "crop insurance" he was still out of @ $250,000 so I see his hatred for a deer.People can say the deer are not here like they used to be if thay want but I shined bean fields this summer and was shocked,they're plenty here just smarter..

I started to use you and your family as an example for legally taking care of the crop-damage by heavy harvest.....but, I figured you would come around soon. LOL

If you were paying $20+ per acre and did NOT know that the farmer was shooting them at night in the Summer, though.....

THAT would be a totally different deal!

But, as is; it is a Win/Win!

yea, paid hunts would be win win.

letting them rot is wrong period. as rich as madison county is, there are still people really hurting for food.

Well if anyone knows of a farmer in the southern part of the state that needs help with some doe (or hog) killing, I'd be glad to help him out. We only have one month left and I've only put one in the freezer so far.

I would be willing to bet a pretty large sum that you won't get taken up on that.......

Double-talk and Double-dipping; THAT is the name of the game! LOL

I would love to be able to help out a farm or two by taking all the deer I could off the property, but I dont know anybody who has a farm and in need of this... No kidding.

I know a lease holder that actually handles his farmer's crop depredation permits throughout the summer. It's a win/win for both of them. The farmer reduces his crop damage, and the lease holder, who tries to be as selective as he can, gets an improved buck/doe ratio. By doing it in the summer, the hunters don't have to worry so much with it during hunting season. The bad part is that they are required to leave them laying as per the law. They killed so many during the summer, the neighbors started complaining about all the carcasses laying in the fields. The man told me himself that he now shoots them through the lungs with a .22-250 so they will run out of the field before expiring. Out of sight, out of mind. CD.

If you don't like it, go to your CAB rep, legislative rep or start writing letters and making phone calls and showing up at meetings.

While I can understand the farmers wanting to save their crops, I also think most of them abuse it really bad especially around here. I have helped them, so I have seen it from both sides. I don't care for it either. To me, the coyotes and buzzards do more to their crops eating the dead deer than the deer do. I thnk they should just let some folks hunt them the right way if they want some killed off.

Deer respond to night hunting the same way they respond to hunting season, they avoid the pressure. This past summer I helped shoot several fields in nw FL. A month into it you could see a pronounced difference in the fields we worked several times a week and the fields right down the road that had no one shooting. We had trouble finding deer to shoot while 200 yds down the road they were standing on top of each other, so hunting season isn't always the anwser, the immediate pressure is very effective.

I believe we have a long and liberal enough season that deer numbers can be controlled through legal hunting. The problem is we as hunters love deer/deer hunting and love to watch them almost as much as shoot them. If you start popping them with the freqeuncy needed to control the herd, sightings go down and we start panicing thinking we are over harvesting. I feel the solution is to lay anterless deer down when ever you have an opportunity. If you do manage to somehow overharvest your property (and thats very doubtful), your neighbor won't and the deer will redistribute to the most food/cover.
Knockem down now gentlemen and there will be no need to kill them in the summer!

Exactly!
Farmer Brown gets an illegal deer killing permit, from DCNR, for his two sons and a nephew, he ain't fixing to let you come over and help out.