Ugly side of deer depredation

[cloningerba]

Ill tell ya one thing that's for certain is that this thread has really derailed off the deep end... BUT I enjoy and appreciate the creative thoughts and input everyone has. That is the glory of a collective internet forum. This is a really sticky situation either way you look at it. Not really sure how native Americans/Pilgrim's from the past got brought into this but so be it...

In my humble opinion (which means nothing) I fall into both categories simply because I try to and have to see on both sides of the fence. I am an insurance adjuster by trade and depending on the given client and the given situation, am paid to do just such.

I personally was not raised to waste such meat/game provided through hunting and fishing. I would not hunt/fish otherwise. I would save more money each year by simply going to the store. I take pride in the journey, harvest and bounty from hunting and fishing. The thought of knowing where my food comes from the journey from the field to my plate is quite amazing and humbling. My family has always harvested everything we have hunted/caught and I personally try to expand upon eating as much as possible. Within the last couple seasons, I have started eating the organs and have found out that they are quite delicious. I myself have obtained a few deer friends and family have struck with their vehicle simply because they knew I would process and eat the meat.

On the other hand, you have to take into consideration the depredation from the farmers stand point. If something is interfering with another mans lively hood and they have an option to hinder/stop such threat to some degree, I cant blame them for doing so. Hard to blame someone for trying to protect their lively hood. My family has had small gardens for years and we waged wars on the crows, rabbits, squirrels and any other small critter that got into the garden. Within reason, we ate what we wanted and buried the rest to try and save the vegetables. I can only imagine having do this for a lively hood. I am not familiar with the depredation law, but if the farmers area able to salvage any part of the deer they should. Mother nature will handle the rest but it wont hurt to speed up the process.

Again, I feel like every situation is dependent upon the circumstances at stake. I have definitely seen a decrease in the deer population in certain areas and an increase in others. The wasted meat portion bothers me the most. Then again, my livelihood and families livelihood doesnt depend on the crops I grow.

and thats all ive got to say about that... lol

 

[cloningerba]

Oh... I forgot.... like helium stated.. I plan to depredate as many as possible this coming season. If anyone has a deer problem, ive got an itchy finger and enjoy cleaning them! Jerkys getting low and the price of gas is getting high. Just joined a new lease in Chester and looking forward to filling the freezer!

 

[dc bigdaddy]

Man, I missed a lot by not reading this yesterday.

I like how deer are always blamed for eating crops.
does anyone know how much soybeans a Muskrat can eat? We sat and watched one eat a 1/4 acre one year.

Does anyone know how much soybeans a rabbit will eat? They'll start at the end of the row and just work their way down it when they are coming out of the ground.

Farmers have been shooting deer for ever. It won't stop. Deer populations seem to be doing good for now.
If the hunters would shoot more deer, the farmers won't have too.

Anyway, to each their own. Bitch all you want, it's not going to change.

 

[Hevi 13. Anson]

Man, I missed a lot by not reading this yesterday.

I like how deer are always blamed for eating crops.
does anyone know how much soybeans a Muskrat can eat? We sat and watched one eat a 1/4 acre one year.

Does anyone know how much soybeans a rabbit will eat? They'll start at the end of the row and just work their way down it when they are coming out of the ground.

Farmers have been shooting deer for ever. It won't stop. Deer populations seem to be doing good for now.
If the hunters would shoot more deer, the farmers won't have too.

Anyway, to each their own. Bitch all you want, it's not going to change.

We didn't need to deprecate last year because the geese beat the deer to the beans. We had close to a hundred geese in the fields in the summer.

 

[Dick]

We didn't need to deprecate last year because the geese beat the deer to the beans. We had close to a hundred geese in the fields in the summer.

welfare geese, they should ALL be shot.

 

[CutNRun]

I shot deer on depredation permits and killed the local "golf course " geese on the early season hunts. The geese were pulling up newly seeded pastures at one of the horse farms i hunt. The Wildlife Biologist I talked to said "Have a nice time. & I hope you kill 'em all" I shot enough that they didn't come back for several years, which made the farm owner extremely happy. I cleaned them all, but I am here to tell you that piedmont geese are nasty tasting. They ended up becoming bait in crab traps and didn't go to waste.

We had a licensed processor who would fire up his cooler and wanted us to bring the deer in batches. That way, it wasn't one or two here and there, and we could do our best to fill the cooler over 3-4 days. As long as each animal was tagged and the numbers were registered and accounted for, possessing the meat wasn't a problem. Because we chose where the meat went, it was up to us to cover the expense of processing. The butcher charged us less than usual (it isn't his busy time of year) and we got lots of bulk burger and sausage done. When people didn't have to work for it, there was always hands out of those who wanted some, but as soon as we asked for help covering processing costs or help skinning, the line got pretty short real fast. That property was far enough away from the house that it wasn't practical for me to keep on with it. (2+ hours each way multiple days a week, then dragging & dressing, plus my regular job). We ended up finding a local archery club that was more than happy to take over the job. Win/win for the farmer. He gets crops now that used to be a salad bar for the deer.

Jim

 

[QuietButDeadly]

Another comment on donated deer........

I have seen deer carcasses brought to a processor that were so nasty that the processor refused to accept them and I was glad he would not hang them in his cooler with my clean carcasses. These were not donated deer as the processor was not part of the donation network. And his main reason for not participating in the donation process was due to the example above. He said, if folks will bring in nasty meat that they plan to have processed to eat, you can not expect them to take proper care of something they are giving away.

 

[creekhobo]

When I see those pictures, I can't help but wonder if they reached in and got the inner loins.

 

[30/06]

I’m surprised anyone can kill 150 deer unless there were 1000 to start with, they tend to get tired of getting shot at and become pretty skittish. Were you able to shoot them at night? Serious question, not stirring pot. Reason I ask is our landowners in KY ask us to kill 10 does a season, this is 1000 acres mixed crop land/cover. After the first couple get blasted and recovered they start to act like skittish rabbits, showing up later and later and eventually becoming nocturnal.

 

[Rescue44]

I've read several articles in farm magazines about deer and crop damage. 2 I immediately thought about when I started reading this thread. In NC, a large bean field had a "plot" covered in chicken wire. Later in the season a picture was taken, that was in the article. I was surprised at the huge difference in size of the beans under the chicken wire relative to the unprotected beans. Practically the whole field. Dang!! Large monetary loss. The other, but perhaps in the same article, some farmers, in NC, got together and paid for a helicopter with FLIR and the pilot flew at night. Think it was recorded. The wildlife biologist was surprised that the deer population was actually a lot higher than they estimated. I've had, and neighbors, too, severe damage in some smaller, in the woods bean fields, but nothing like in the field with the chicken wire covering the beans. So I can see some farmers just wanting the deer shot, no matter if the deer meat is consumed/used. I chose not to depredate, but I can understand that farmers would.

 

[nccatfisher]

I’m surprised anyone can kill 150 deer unless there were 1000 to start with, they tend to get tired of getting shot at and become pretty skittish. Were you able to shoot them at night? Serious question, not stirring pot. Reason I ask is our landowners in KY ask us to kill 10 does a season, this is 1000 acres mixed crop land/cover. After the first couple get blasted and recovered they start to act like skittish rabbits, showing up later and later and eventually becoming nocturnal.

If you were referring to my post we are talking about 35 members of a 9K acre club. We dogged and still hunted.

 

[Downeast]

Without having to read 4 pages of this I know the simple answer. It's God's fault. Be it deer, bugs, draught, flood, wind, hail. God did it. To blame stupid animals that are simply hungry is silly.

 

[Rescue44]

Without having to read 4 pages of this I know the simple answer. It's God's fault. Be it deer, bugs, draught, flood, wind, hail. God did it. To blame stupid animals that are simply hungry is silly.

Trump???

 

[timber]

Deer in the summer don’t really act the same as they do in hunting season. I have killed a bunch over the years destroying crops. Mainly peanuts. Have drove into a farm and shoot a couple then ride and check another field come back in a hour and they will be back in the field with the ones had shot. Have a friend killed over 60 in one peanut field a couple years ago and still had some damage. I think some that dont farm and only time they go in the woods is in hunting season have no clue how many deer there are in some of the areas. There are a lot more deer than what comes to a corn pile to get there picture taken. If all you had to do was kill 4 or 5 you probably didnt have much damage to begin with unless you had small fields. Not only do they damage peanuts and soybeans now they work on the tops of some of the cotton.

 

[darkthirty]

Deer in the summer don’t really act the same as they do in hunting season. I have killed a bunch over the years destroying crops. Mainly peanuts. Have drove into a farm and shoot a couple then ride and check another field come back in a hour and they will be back in the field with the ones had shot. Have a friend killed over 60 in one peanut field a couple years ago and still had some damage. I think some that dont farm and only time they go in the woods is in hunting season have no clue how many deer there are in some of the areas. There are a lot more deer than what comes to a corn pile to get there picture taken. If all you had to do was kill 4 or 5 you probably didnt have much damage to begin with unless you had small fields. Not only do they damage peanuts and soybeans now they work on the tops of some of the cotton.

^^^^^^^this^^^^^^

I have friends who will kill 50-100 in each of their fields this summer and they have been doing it for years. But yet they still deer hunt every fall/winter and kill plenty of deer of nice deer at that.
Most hunters are clueless when it comes to how deer are actually there

 

[sky hawk]

I have friends who will kill 50-100 in each of their fields this summer and they have been doing it for years. But yet they still deer hunt every fall/winter and kill plenty of deer of nice deer at that.
Most hunters are clueless when it comes to how deer are actually there

There is also the issue of deer traveling and congregating around summer food sources. Deer are known to travel miles from their home range during the summer to utilize bean fields. Having used cameras around late-planted bean fields, I can say that if you have tender beans in July-Sept., the deer will flock to it from miles around. The baseline population during hunting season, when corn piles and acorns are widely spread is only about 1/4 of what it was during that time period.

 

[Rubline]

Side note on thwarting deer. It will be hard to keep them out of soybeans but think more on sense of smell. What has worked for me in the past is cheap deodorant stick rubbed on trees and shampoos mixed 50/50 with water in spray bottles. After they get used to it change brands and it should give you another week or two each time. Just remember you are sacrificing your own hunting area or creating an artificial funnel

Wonder if that would work around a garden?

 

[Hunterreed]

Wonder if that would work around a garden?

Not sure, works good in places the deer aren't used to human scent on a regular basis. Garden deer may be to habituated to human scent already. Cheap enough to try it out anyway

 

[timber]

Soaps will work a little but when they get a taste for ever what you have planted it dosent phase them much. Few years ago had 5 acres of vegetables planted to sale in the middle of farm. Don’t know how many bars of Irish spring soap i hung up. Also bought a dewalt construction radio that ran off a cordless battery. Moved it to different place about every other night. Worked for about 2 weeks. Then late one afternoon went moved the radio walked a 100 yards or so back to truck. Looked back down the field and a big doe was standing in the peas not far from the radio with a mouthful of purple hull peas. Reached in truck got the 223. That one didn’t eat anymore. Ended up killing 23 end of July and august that year. Had one plot of peas probably close to a half acre at back of farm never picked a one off of it. They walked down the row and ate the peas off the vine fast as they came on the vines. Did manage to get peas of the plots planted closer to the house. The vegetables were surrounded by soybeans that year so want like they didn’t have plenty to eat.

 

[Hevi 13. Anson]

Wonder if that would work around a garden?

Human hair works especially hair with dye in it. Spread it around garden and listen to them blow

 

[lasttombstone]

Back when I was a kid the women would get the sweepings from the beauty parlor to take home. Put it in a piece of old hose, not garden hose for you younger folks, and hang it from tobacco sticks around the garden. Did a pretty good job but there weren't nearly as many deer back then.

 

[Scrub]

Farmers need to lease the land to hunters and give them a quota of what to kill from a biologist to contain the damage to an acceptable level. Shooting and wasting game is a huge sin in my book, if you gonna kill it you got to eat it otherwise don’t pull the trigger.

 

[Deep River]

Farmers need to lease the land to hunters and give them a quota of what to kill from a biologist to contain the damage to an acceptable level. Shooting and wasting game is a huge sin in my book, if you gonna kill it you got to eat it otherwise don’t pull the trigger.

Farmers don’t ‘need’ to allow anyone to do anything on their property. It is THEIR property. This is as wrong headed as it gets.

 

[timber]

Not sure how shooting a deer destroying crops is any different than shooting ground hogs eating crops or coyotes killing young calves. As far as biologist doubt there are many that have a clue how many deer are in some of these areas like a farmer that deals with them on a daily bases for 40 or 50 years.. There is a plenty of government control over farmers now without adding a biologist into it to tell them what they can or can’t do because some hunters don’t approve of killing the deer.

 

[Justin]

Not sure how shooting a deer destroying crops is any different than shooting ground hogs eating crops or coyotes killing young calves. As far as biologist doubt there are many that have a clue how many deer are in some of these areas like a farmer that deals with them on a daily bases for 40 or 50 years.. There is a plenty of government control over farmers now without adding a biologist into it to tell them what they can or can’t do because some hunters don’t approve of killing the deer.

Yep. Save the deer. Snakes, coyotes, groundhogs, mice, rats, be damned.

 

[Hevi 13. Anson]

Farmers need to lease the land to hunters and give them a quota of what to kill from a biologist to contain the damage to an acceptable level. Shooting and wasting game is a huge sin in my book, if you gonna kill it you got to eat it otherwise don’t pull the trigger.

Not real sure when your deer season comes in but around here the damage is done by the time you get to put your Sitka orange on. If the hunters would compensate farmer for loss crops this may be feasible but people here bitch about $10 @ acre. Crop loss could cost an additional @20 @ acre. Forestry, farming then hunting lease are the pecking order to most landowners.

 

[billyf]

some of the blueberry farmers down east put out discarded sweet potatoes so the deer eat the potatoes more than the blueberries. This seems to work for some. Im sure not practical for most.

 

[oldest school]

If the deer had no horns they would have been exterminated long ago.
Think about all that they cause in return for what they "give". Does anyone besides hunters really give a poop if they are around?
Even the CH nuts hate them because of lyme.

 

[Scrub]

Farmers don’t ‘need’ to allow anyone to do anything on their property. It is THEIR property. This is as wrong headed as it gets.

Not really me personally I’d figure out the damage per year I had. Farm some of my land for deer and do 3-day hunts or season long lease. Bet he would make a lot more than the few acres of soybeans he’d lose to deer.

 

[Deep River]

Not really me personally I’d figure out the damage per year I had. Farm some of my land for deer and do 3-day hunts or season long lease. Bet he would make a lot more than the few acres of soybeans he’d lose to deer.

Yeah. Let’s let farmers figure out what is in their personal best interest. M-Kay?