Anyone can chime in, I know this has been talked about before: Matt, what’s your opinion on these type of permits to farmers in terms of managing whitetail deer population and health? Every farmer you’ll talk to that shoots deer on these permits claim that they can’t seem to kill enough deer and the hunters that hunt those areas claim the farmers kill all of the deer. I’m sure it’s more of an “in between the two”. A guy that hunts property in the valley near our farm claims his year has been terrible because the “farmers shot all the deer this past summer”. Our deer numbers seem ok, so maybe we are far enough removed from something like that to see a noticeable difference.

I did hunt a property about 10 years ago that routinely produced several 140”+ deer a year. You didn’t see high numbers of deer, but you were confident when you would see a buck that it would be a nice one. One year that property completely fell flat and stayed that way for at least the next 4-5 years that I hunted it. That was around the time EHD was hot and heavy, but at the same time, the farm next to the property also started shooting deer in the summer. I’m guessing the drop off was a combination of the two. I’ve not been back to that property and have no clue if it’s been able to recover to how it once was.

Is there somewhere that these numbers are recorded by specific property, county or statewide? In the large scale scheme of things, I’m sure it’s a drop in the bucket, but in an isolated area that practices this what could a landowner do to manage for higher deer numbers? Improve their habitat to the point that you can hope the deer don’t walk to the next farm in the summer time and Just practice trigger restraint while the neighbor isn’t?

I have trouble with the summer killing of deer. They are simply shot and left to rot or keep the coyote numbers climbing. I am not for it at all. I also think if you kill a doe with little ones, they are coyote bait or left to starve to death.

It absolutely sucks for the surrounding landowners. My family owns 40 acres next to one of these farms that did this.
It hasn't been worth hunting for the last 2 years.

Jbatey1, the depredation permits are not about managing deer populations. They’re about a landowner or farmer having the right to protect a cash crop from damages that affect his/her livelihood. Currently speaking, there’s not a better system than what is in place in my opinion. The technical assistance biologist with the DCNR conducts an on site inspection to document damage, how much damage, what other measures have been taken to minimize damage, and only issues permits for a specified time and a specified amount of deer. If they kill that specified amount and are still experiencing documented damage another permit may be issued. They can’t just kill unlimited deer and I am almost certain that any farmer claiming to have killed a very high amount is typically far from true. They are required to submit what they kill and the majority never do kill the total number allowed on their permit. They are also given information about the DMAP program and encouraged to allow hunting during regular season to minimize damage. I don’t think you could do it any better. It’s not as simple as them calling and saying there’s a problem and the state giving them free reign. It’s a process with documentation and checks and balances. If a farmer steps out of the conditions of the permit it can be pulled. The bottom line is this, case law has already been established, and the courts have decided the landowners have a right to protect their crops. So the state basically has to issue the permits, but do have the regulatory authority as a game and fish agency, to monitor the way it is administered.

If hunters have property nearby my recommendation would be to talk to the farmer and see if there’s a way they can help him achieve lowering the deer numbers to a level he’s happy with so he’s not shooting as many in season. I can’t tell you how many of them told me this, “I let “x” hunt the place and they tell me every year they’ll kill a few does, but they never do, so I have to shoot them in summer when my beans are coming up”. I bet you money if someone they let hunt would just shoot a few in deer season most of them would feel better. It’s more mental, than actual, in some cases. 😉

Thanks for the reply, Matt. Is there someone that these numbers are available and broke down by area or county?

yes ,,,,talk to the farmer , better you the hunter lower the population than the farmer . the farmer ,,,, if its brown it dies he wont pick and choose

For the record, I’ve got a great relationship with our farmers. It’s just a tale as old as time that I seem to hear year after year between farmers and hunters. I’ve been up since 3am with a crying 5 year old..so I’ve had plenty of time to sit and ponder the questions of the world. LOL

My permits only allow shooting does, no bucks allowed.

In 2 years killed 1 doe. Neighbor had 5 bucks eating his beans up next to our shops middle of the day. On several occasions.

We tried spraying a product 3 times to keep deer off the beans. It works fine unless it gets ashes off in the rain. That was over a 100 dollars an acre washed away and beans ate up. Replanted 20ish acres and they never got up. Our hunters have killed over a 10 deer in 3 acres and adjoins farmer says the same. We pull deer from all around the hills where it’s great habitat for deer. Mixed cutover ages interspersed with hardwood drains. They just cut 160 acres of hardwoods and that seems to have moved deer away from us. We’re hoping so. One neighbor has deer hunters and they only shoot bucks. They complain a lot we killing all the deer. We’re trying 😂

It will never happen though. Deer just move after hours during the hunting season.

matt , yeap we made a big up to do club cry one year . boss told them for a couple years he had a problem and they wouldn't help so we fixed it .

he planted the cotton field in wheat after we picked it then in Feb we slaughter deer . i forget how many we killed a lot were bucks too,,, couple were nice ones . waisted meat !!!!!! i hated doing it too

ok it may have changed . times i was in on them 40 years ago

The permits are only as good as the people who are shooting on them. My neighbor had one years ago and let his teenage grandsons do the shooting. They were taking the golf cart 1/4 mile down the rd and shooting bucks out of a kudzu patch beside a church at night. I know of a guy who shoots on a permit for a farmer in Dallas cnty now. They shoot lots of deer and they don’t care if it’s a buck or doe. They don’t care the farmer just tells them to kill them all.

They have a right to protect their crop.......the people around them have the right not to shoot any does.

And the hunter gonna lose that one if it hasn't changed

Our hunters are down about 20 deer. Only killed 30 something and only 1 doe was killed around there from deprivation permits.

Wonder if you could make it a requirement to enroll in something like Wisconsin's Tax Law Land to get the permits. I.E. - you can have doe killing permits but your land then has to be open to public hunting to help alleviate the problem. Hunters could pay $25/year to be enrolled in the program, which requires some reading material and you're only allowed to kill does.

If you lost $40,000 dollars worth of income in a year to deer you might have a different outlook on this.

Yes farmers hate deer. They destroy their crops, hunters bug them to hunt deer. Cost them several thousand a year. The one we hunt on does get summer permits but have no idea how he handles it. An antler in a $600 tractor tire and shut down getting it fixed $$$$$$$. I do know of a farmer, beans and corn and cattle. We ask permission to hunt on of his track 180 acres 70+ acre field with creek and mountain on it. Ask to help him manage the coyote and deer we would not kill any bucks as he likes to hunt also. Trapping coons he was all about us getting them out of there. Killed a beaver he was very proud of that. Few years have passed great relationships with farmer we show him our kills,call/stop by and check on him when bad weather hit’s or we see him out. Give him a ham,gift fruit basket every year for Christmas. We now turkey hunt, he told us let our kids kill a buck if they wanted. We’ve offered to lease it nope y’all just hunt it. We now coyote hunt his pastures if we want. They are full of turkeys. We lucked out. Try it may work.

I changed my view of it after tracking deer for a big plantation and then later going to track deer for the folks hunting the farmland next door where the farmer had a depredation permit. It just made it easy to see both sides of that coin…..How is some farmer supposed to make a living next to thousands of acres of land being maxed out for deer production?? If the folks around him are going to heavily populate the landscape with goats then he has to have a way to defend his crop against them or else he might as well not farm…..and that wouldn’t be good for any of us if we put our farmers out of business. On the flip side of that though, the guy that owns the big plantation has just as much right to manage his land how he wants to. The depredation permits just seem to be the best middle ground until someone invents something to effectively deter deer off of crops

From what I've seen in the past its,better on the farmer to just get the permit most times . They don't have worry about everything being torn up .by the hunters.