Deer Problems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rtsj]

Ok here's the story.  I have alot of property that borders a large farm.  Every year we deal with the farmer shooting deer for crop damage.  Last year alone just on my property that borders his i found 13 bucks ranging from small 4 pts to 140+ inch 13 pt and 11 doe. Thats just what the vultures and horrible smell led me too. There were others in the 75 acre standing corn field that I could smell but didnt look for.  Now remember thats just what I found. I heard yesterday from a neighboring landowner that his son is friends with one of the farmhands and he told him they had a mass grave in which they dug a hole and burried 39 additional deer in.
    Now let me start off by saying I understand we have alot of deer and I know there is crop damage but there has to be other ways of doing this.  I sympathize with the farmer, its his livlyhood. BUT,  Why shoot all the bucks when he could easily kill double the amount of does? Thats alot of meat to waste 63 deer x avg. weight of 150 each is 9450 lbs of venison. Sure would feed alot of people!!!
     Here in Pa. Farmers are allowed to shoot deer day or night 365 days a year. By law they have 24 hrs to gut them and notify the Game Commission to pick them up. Doesn't seem that hard to do,  yet this farmer either burries them or just picks them up with the highlift drives them over to the property line and dumps them to rot. I've done everything from talking to him , neighbors, Game Commission(Which does absolutly nothing ) and even the Ag Farm Bureau. I've called State Reps. with no help. What would you do? Any advice? Pics to come.

[rtsj]

[honker22]

That is a sad, sad sight.  I am getting upset just thinking about something like this happening.  Jeez, i wanted to hurt myself when I ran over a young buck on the HWY that bordered our land.  So sorry you have to deal with this... some beautiful bucks going to waste

[savduck]

I think I would take a night time ride through the field with some round up.

[BOFF]

Maybe if you spent as much time and money in your summer time and winter time planting for the deer, as the farmer does, the deer wouldn't be getting shot by the farmer. 



God Bless,
David B.

[rtsj]

BOFF:    We do spend a lot of time and money in food plots. We have 6 acres planted in Imperial whitetail clover and another 3 planted in Friged Forage Barassicas. We also have another acre and a half in sorghum milo and sunflowers. All these foodplots are done with just two of us. With the price of seed lime and fertilizer its just not possible to do anymore financially. There is also another 75 acres of soybean right in the middle of my property. Believe me we try. The deer just like to go over there. The problem is that farmer always harvests his winter wheat and no till soybeans about 4 weeks after all the other crops are 10-14 inches tall. This offers the deer fresh tender shoots and draws them like magnets. We've done pantyhose with human hair, mothballs and deer away spray on ribbon along the boundry with no luck. Tried going over there every evening shooting the shotgun to try scaring them and they just go there at night and he shoots them with lights. Its a no win situation.

[warchickenchaser]

call PETA, let them handle it, and in a couple years send them a thank you note with pictures of all the big deer you are killing. 

[dirt road ninja]

 I would try to get a group of friends up and try to offer him enough money to lease the hunting rights's to his place. Under the condition that your group would be doing all of the deer killing. You have to show him that deer can be a valuable assest to him. Farmers all over the country know that we hunters will pay more to hunt the deer then the damage the deer do. It has to be about the money with him. Good luck and if I lived closer would I would be very interested in leasing the ground with you.

On another note. I would not evolve the media or peta in any of this. Negitive publicity does nothing but hurt us as a group, even if done for good reasons.

[hookedspur]

I would try to get a group of friends up and try to offer him enough money to lease the hunting rights's to his place. Under the condition that your group would be doing all of the deer killing. You have to show him that deer can be a valuable assest to him. Farmers all over the country know that we hunters will pay more to hunt the deer then the damage the deer do. It has to be about the money with him. Good luck and if I lived closer would I would be very interested in leasing the ground with you.

On another note. I would not evolve the media or peta in any of this. Negitive publicity does nothing but hurt us as a group, even if done for good reasons.

Handle this easy and in the same way you would like to be dealt with .

[Basser69]

I think that dirt road ninja is right on target. It sounds like a money issue and y'all just need to supply him with what he is loosing in crops to stop the killing. At least that way you can control what is being killed.

[rtsj]

This farmer has less than 10 acres of woods. So it holds little to no deer.75% come from my property and 25% come from the neighbors. Very few deer r there during hunting season. He kills all of them during summer. He won't even open it up to crop damage hunting because u can only legally kill does. He wants to be able to kill what he wants. We do harvest does. We killed 23 last year and 8 bucks. We avg 20+ does every year. Just bout ready to say oh well. Tired of spending all this money to help raise big deer just to let them get shot when their guard is down especially at night.

[HogBiologist]

I hate to play devils advocate here.  Look at this from the farmers perspective.  This man spends his time and money to make a living.  This pest (in his eyes) comes in and destroies his crop, which is his livelyhood.  Lets turn the tables a little, would you be this mad if he were having trouble with hogs?  Would anyone really care if he were shooting them all hours of the day all year?  What about racoons, armadilos, squirrels?  I know you hate to see those big bucks harvested for waste, but it sounds like yall have a seriously high population of deer.  As to the shooting of the big bucks, he does not care about antlers, it is just another mouth removed from crop damage.  I understand your plight and frustration, but what about his.  This would be like you owning a grocery store and some illegal mexicans coming in and eating the food in the store and not paying for it. 

[savduck]

I hate to play devils advocate here.  Look at this from the farmers perspective.  This man spends his time and money to make a living.  This pest (in his eyes) comes in and destroies his crop, which is his livelyhood.  Lets turn the tables a little, would you be this mad if he were having trouble with hogs?  Would anyone really care if he were shooting them all hours of the day all year?  What about racoons, armadilos, squirrels?  I know you hate to see those big bucks harvested for waste, but it sounds like yall have a seriously high population of deer.  As to the shooting of the big bucks, he does not care about antlers, it is just another mouth removed from crop damage.  I understand your plight and frustration, but what about his.  This would be like you owning a grocery store and some illegal mexicans coming in and eating the food in the store and not paying for it.  

I may have read some of the last post wrong, but even though the farmer is within his rights and has permits...he his still not following the letter of the law on his end, and  no one is holding him accountable. I agree with your comments that he is just lowering the herd, but he still has to follow the rules that govern him being able to do that. I think it is piss poor if he is breaking rules and no one is doing anything about it.  With his actions and him dragging the deer over to the line..It seems to me he doesnt want you hunting at all and is trying to sabotage you from having a successful hunt. If you have tried every peaceful solution then my next step would try to get him in trouble for Wanton Waste laws, tresspassing, or the harrassment laws they get anti hunters on for messing with hunters. Since it is a money thing, and he doesnt want extra money, maybe he will react  to losing money when paying violations. Maybe you contact a Federal Game Warden instead of state or local sheriff. I would think the sheriff could respond and file tresspassing charges if you found dead deer in the middle of your field. You may be able to get DHEC out there or a disease control official due to the rotting corpses not being disposed of properly.

[flintlock]

What a waste.

[mnturkey]

That is a sad thing, especially with all the talk of starving people.
Maybe keep talking to him and explain that the price of a big deer is worth more then his crop.