Years ago, NAS Whiting Field was setting up one of these hunts on base. Bowhunting only. I called the number and when the guy got on the phone first thing I asked was, could I keep the meat. He said no, we already have a hole dug. I just said, ok, thanks.

I know a famer, very well, that lobbies on a state level for a more liberal doe harvest. I have also asked said farmer if I could come kill does on his property during hunting season. No bucks, for any reason. Just a few does. As many or as few as he wanted removed. The answer wasn't no, but I got no answer, which means no.

IMO a farmer shouldn't be allowed to use a depredation permit, if he won't allow people to harvest does during the season, when the meat can be utilized.

Perxactly.

We have some guys that live to shoot. I get a few every year to eat and don’t have to do the work. We’d rather they get killed and put to use than rot in a hole. Some of them last year learned better do as I say down there and it’s not their place. We can find hunters. I think I got the remaining guys understanding that.

We lost over $8000 in planting cost on out small place. The landowner next to us had over 30 gone or hurt badly.

Thats money

Have you ask why he never answers you .I know farmers that said yes till it was more trouble than it was worth . Some people ruin things for ever body

I imagine it could be rough on the farmer's road systems

CNC ,,,, you would not believe what I've seen them do.

They rut up around the fields , the drain ditches , leave gates unlocked , drive across the fields . To lazy to drag a deer 50 yards . Bringing guests was another thing . Let one guy go and he'd bring people with him . They'd come in different trucks .

Then he rented land that was least out for hunting too. That's where we had the big problems with crop lose. What he owned we pretty much took care of ..

Boss was fighting deer , beavers and in one place geese on a soybean field .

No I haven't asked him again snice we talked this summer. I will next year.

When you talk to him tell you wont be like the other guys . You ever get in with him right you'll have a place to hunt.

If you gonna have a son , daughter , wife that's gonna hunt with you take them with you too

First cousin farms in LA . We ; me , my son in law , his dad , brother and two nephews go down the last week of season and hunt his property. I didn’t go this year but the rest of the crew killed 10 , mostly does . Every deer was given to a needy family. Last year I had 5 processed and brought them home to my freezer . Cousin does use the permits in the summer to shoot deer . He doesn’t have to shoot as many if we do a good job during the season. If you saw what a herd of deer will do to a peanut field or young cotton plants you would rethink your position.

I don’t necessarily have a position. We lease about 200 acres of our property to farmers. From my untrained eye, I can tell beans get ate, and so on with corn, too. But how much loss there actually is, I wouldn’t even know how to calculate it. I’ve never in my life drove by any farm field and said “my god the deer have absolutely destroyed that field” though.

Like Matt said, if this is the best answer for everyone involved, I’ll take the professionals opinion on it.

One question I have though, is, Why the summer? Why not do this shooting during deer season? I get that their crops aren’t standing during the winter, but couldn’t they (the state) just base the number to be harvested from the study performed at the picking of the crops?

In hunting season they have the option to allow hunters to kill deer legally. No need for a permit. Damage is occurring on young crops, and is when they need the most help.

, but why not just say “ Well, based off of your damage reported last year, you need to make sure “X number of deer are harvested on your property this hunting season” and leave it as deer being killed during deer season?

(When) the deer are being killed isn’t what’s saving the crop as much as it’s simply the deer being killed in general, right?

Do most farmers look at 100 deer killed in June/July better than they would look at 100 deer killed in December/January? The deer are gone either way.

They attract deer they normally don’t have during open season, as soon as beans start germinating. In some cases, even cotton. I’ve seen terrible damage to young cotton plants. If you can protect the beans and cotton the first few weeks the damage is typically minimized. They have a short window in which to do that, and killing deer in season doesn’t always lead to less pressure on crops in summer. Winter harvest does help in some cases.

When I rode on a cotton picker a couple years ago with my buddy there was hardly anything to pick on the first 6 rows from the woods. Deer had hammered the crop.

they'll eat cotton long after that . lol

hungry deer aint picky

Sounds like good fellas taking care of another good fella

Last year the deer stayed on our beans. They even ate young corn, never seen that before

Y'all need to talk to some real farmers because y'all don't know what y'all are talking about. Deer have been an issue for decades... this is nothing new. Do you lose a little money.. YES. But if you have been farming for real and not typing on a keyboard you figured out how to deal with it 40 years ago. This has been a problem since the 70's. If you didn't figure out how to deal with it you are long gone and somewhere doing something else for a living.

Do you loose a little money planting on 15" and upping the population to 160,000. We use to do double end rows to help offset a bit of the damage. Does that cost money.. Yea a little bit.

I can remember a couple years where we had some of our best beans ever when the deer nipped them by the time they had their first trifoliate.

Does someone somewhere have an issue? Probably. Most farmers are smart enough that if it is long-term to simply plant something else. Right? This issue pales in comparison to an issue we now have with wild hogs. Nowhere even in the same ballpark. IF y'all want to get concerned about some farming you are barking up the wrong tree the hogs actually ARE the issue in 2024. Hogs WILL put you out of business.

4 pages of a bunch of dribble right here.

Could hogs be excluded by an electric fence?

High fencing for deer would be tricky but I'd think an electric fence would work with pigs - not to mention they are year round open season.