Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum You support the farmer or the neighbor?

The following post was copied from another post. Replies seem to be running about 70/30 in support of the farmer.

Was just wanting to see how the folks here thought. Of course from the post you are only getting to see one side.

I have a cotton farmer that let a crew of people hunt deer all summer in his cotton fields. The same crew also charges people to hunt feral pigs on the same land. They are using corn feeders and hunt all night. My hunting land is about half a mile away from his farm and I am finding carcasses all over my land. I am seeing about 1/4 of the deer I have in the past. These jackasses have just about wiped out the local deer herd.

I asked the game warden how they were allowed to do this and he said that unlike the past where the permit was good for only 10 does, they were giving 30-50 at a time. He also said that he wasn't supposed to even check on their harvest. He did say that he didn't approve of it, but he couldn't do anything about it.

I don't have a problem with farmers making a living, but this is ridiculous. I have a real issue with baiting corn on a depredation permit. I also have an issue making it part of a for profit venture. And I'm kinda sick of them gut shooting them to die on my land.

One of the things that upset the neighbor/hunter next door was the deer being baited with corn. But from the farmer's perspective wouldn't baiting with corn be better than baiting with his cash crop.

Depends on if adding corn to the mix is just exacerbating the problem with deer and hogs and drawing more in than cotton alone would have.....I think the idea is to mitigate crop damage....

If it a cotton farm only then food in the area is bad . Deer will eat cotton but its their last choice from what I've see in the past. The guy next door need to improve his land .

Deer do seem to eat cotton the most early when it is young and tender so I am not sure why they are - per the OP - "being shot all summer". But here cotton is about $650-$850 to grow an acre of cotton. Cotton was at .63 a pound yesterday. Let’s give a generous yield of 1,400 pounds an acre. That is $882.00 gross currently. Doesn’t take much crop loss to be a problem. And 1400lbs is very generous,1000-1200 is closer to most farm averages. May have a field to do 1400 but not likely to average that. I have no idea how many deer it would take to cause a loss of, say 100 pounds less an acre would really hurt the farmer.

I sure like deer hunting and seeing a lot of deer but can understand the point of view of a farmer trying to make a living.

Although I agree with the farmer protecting his crop, if they are baiting with corn feeders to draw the deer there, are they really a problem to begin with? I would have to say the extra baiting should not be allowed.

I noticed some ag fields the other day in a really high hog density area that were wrapped in electric fencing now

Depredation permits are necessary in some cases and have a role in balancing the interests of farmers, hunters, and wildlife managers. But if the above story is true, I definitely do not support the use of bait and/or paid hunts in conjunction with a depredation permit.

If a permit allowing out of season and bag limit exceptions is truly needed then the goal should be to keep deer out of your fields, not draw them in with additional bait. If you need bait to kill them, you don't need the permit in the first place. You should only be killing nuisance deer actively damaging your crop, not drawing in deer from a mile away to shoot them over a corn pile. The state already allows 2 does a day for almost 3 months of rifle season per person, allowing a single farmer 100+ does a year without a permit and multiples more for additional hunters on the property. It should be a pretty rare circumstance to need more than that.

And on top of that, depredation permits shouldn't be used for recreational hunting, especially not paid hunts where the farmer or another individual is profiting from being granted a permit not available to the general public. That's wanting cake and eating it too. There is a reason, if I am not mistaken, that depredation permits do not allow you to process or taxidermy deer taken using one. If you want to recreationally hunt or charge others to do so on your land, use the same rules as the rest of us.

I’ve never gotten a depredation permit for deer but know others who have. I can speak of the permit I get for nuisance geese which eat me corn when first planted or very small. The permit I get is from the state biologist and I have to name 4 people who are the only people allowed to kill the geese. There are strict rules including I can’t decoy them or bait them in any way. I don’t like killing them in the spring anyway because I want to kill them during the waterfowl season but I’m not going to replant corn at 300 plus for a bag of seed. Some years we have killed 10 some years 18 some years 2 and they get smart quickly and go somewhere safer. With the permit I get I have to keep a record of how many are killed and report it in the fall. Again I’m not as familiar with the deer permits but it’s my understanding that they are only supposed to kill antler less deer but I know most farmers who are having crop damage don’t care which deer they kill. I have some deer damage when we are on a bean year but not enough to make me go killing deer during the summer. Don’t know if this adds anything to the op or not.

Deer harvested with a Alabama Depredation Permit can be processed.

General requirements for processing
Transfer of possession: Any transfer of a deer to a processor or taxidermist requires written documentation.
Documentation must include:
Full name of the person who harvested the animal
Conservation ID (CID) of the person who harvested the animal
Game Check Confirmation Number associated with that animal
Date the animal was harvested

In my opinion, every situation is different.

Depredation permits were never issued with the intent of killing every deer on the property who takes a bite of the crop. I've been on the neighbor side of this in years past, and it's not good for your hunting or your deer population if the farmers go too far with it. I'm not sure how guidelines on depredation permits are, but open season all, all night, every night, can't be good.

But neither is getting your crop hammered above and beyond what is considered normal.

There has to be a balance, but in the case mentioned it sounds like the farmer is on the winning end of the situation.

Ok the harvested deer can be processed. What’s the other requirements regarding who can kill them and can you bait them and can you sell hunts for others to kill them. Lots of questions that need answers to from a conversation officer but unfortunately they aren’t going to post here. Maybe matt will see this post and chime in. I will say that only when cotton is young that’s the only time I’ve seen deer eat cotton plants. Unless they are starving or the surrounding areas are not providing any browsing so they can process their food. Cotton is not a preferred food now and never has been

"this is ridiculous. I have a real issue with baiting corn on a depredation permit. I also have an issue making it part of a for profit venture. And I'm kinda sick of them gut shooting them to die on my land."

Yup. If the didn't want deer he wouldn't be attracting them with corn. Sounds like a dirtbag gaming the system.

He stated that they were selling hog hunts, not deer hunts.

My first thought would be what can I provide on my land that a deer would prefer to eat over cotton. That would seem to be a pretty low bar.

If we are talking soybeans or corn, that is a different story all together.

High fence the property. If the crop damage is so bad year after year, eventually the fence will pay for itself and then some. But then again, they ain’t gonna do that, because they have turned it into a game, shooting them at night with thermals. It’s a big thing here in south bama. Wish they would do away with the depredation permits all together.

Here I’m gonna play the devil’s advocate on this. He is selling hog hunts not deer hunts so you don’t need a depredation permit to kill all the hogs you wanna shoot at night over corn or anything else.

Ok now as far as the deer goes, he does have a depredation permit, doesn’t say he is selling deer hunts. A lot of yall are saying that you shouldn’t bait deer to get rid of them… but this is exactly what we do to hogs on our hunting lands. We get tired of the damage they cause and we use bait to concentrate them and kill them more efficiently. Why is it good to do it for hogs but wrong to do it for deer?

Like I said just playing devil’s advocate here.

It's a very fine balance. The problem is ag attracts all animals. Game will travel a long way to get the best food. They do like cotton more than folks think. I have seen where they bust open a watermelon to get to the sweetness. As OP scenario stated, I first hand have watch the same process unfold in smaller scale in an area not loaded with deer. The farmer came in from another state and bought a local farm. Started shooting at night in May. I know one neighor that lived on deer meat and would have thin the herd during the winter months probably short of shooting them all. Venison was their primary meat. I think the issue can be how far deer will travel just to get to ag, causing lower numbers in surrounding areas when someone wipes the herd out. I think there should be a special season for all the hunters to help solve the problem. Maybe early season in September through February or March. Maybe even allow night hunting during this time. Areas should be outlined with higher numbers of deer harvests for a certain number of years. Announced on the game website and shown on maps. Then if the local hunters can't control the population only then will a depredation permit be issued. I know a guy that fed his family on deer that said he could probably eat as many as they could harvest, yet they never shot everyone they seen. I am sure this family would have controlled the numbers. I would think on large farms there would need to be more agressive approach during the season. I read Illinois and some other states are leasing farm land for public hunting, which seems like a good idea in areas where there are more farmland. I am sure we have a lot of hunters on this site that would drop a few off at a local processor to help with feed the hunger program. On the other hand, planting 200 acres of farmland in the middle of 10000 acres of forest makes no sense. The farmer would be better off finding another place to make a living.

If he doesn’t own the land and has already talked to the law he should stfu.