What's going to happen to deer in agricultural areas?

[Turkey Creek]

Since this question was geared towards agricultural areas of the country I will throw my 2 cents at that scenario. As was already mentioned I believe we had more deer and just as good of bucks well before soybeans became as common as they are now. The one thing we can't account for is how much more of a positive impact weeds/forbs had on the deer herd before soybeans became common place. Growing up we never planted soybeans, neither did our neighbors. Way more deer back then. For those of us who have lived in and worked in areas that are 90% or higher ag, have you ever seen large herds of deer feeding in a bean field in mid Summer? A bachelor group of mostly 150" or better deer in those same fields? I have not. "Pure" Ag areas typically have pretty low deer densities from my experience. Deer cannot survive on monotypic diets. Even in areas with good amounts of Ag, woody browse makes up a significant portion of their diet. I personally think non attractive beans will not have a huge impact on deer herds.

 

[Brian662]

Since this question was geared towards agricultural areas of the country I will throw my 2 cents at that scenario. As was already mentioned I believe we had more deer and just as good of bucks well before soybeans became as common as they are now. The one thing we can't account for is how much more of a positive impact weeds/forbs had on the deer herd before soybeans became common place. Growing up we never planted soybeans, neither did our neighbors. Way more deer back then. For those of us who have lived in and worked in areas that are 90% or higher ag, have you ever seen large herds of deer feeding in a bean field in mid Summer? A bachelor group of mostly 150" or better deer in those same fields? I have not. "Pure" Ag areas typically have pretty low deer densities from my experience. Deer cannot survive on monotypic diets. Even in areas with good amounts of Ag, woody browse makes up a significant portion of their diet. I personally think non attractive beans will not have a huge impact on deer herds.

Giant velvet bucks in August bean fields are pretty much what deer hunting social media lives for that time of year.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Giant velvet bucks in August bean fields are pretty much what deer hunting social media lives for that time of year.

Oh I am not saying that deer don't use them, they most certainly do. I am saying that non attractive beans are not going to have a detrimental effect on herd size or the quality of the bucks produced in areas that are predominantly Ag. Those pictures are very highly unlikely to have been taken in a 300 acre bean field that is surrounded by bean fields for miles in any direction. Picture taken in a 20 acre bean field surrounded by a mix of other deer habitat, you bet. A guy who plants beans in a huge field surrounded by other bean fields really has no need to pay more for the GMO trait as deer damage is basically non-existent.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

They will have a massive effect. It’s literally taking out hundreds of thousands of acres of maybe the most nutritious deer food we can plant! Beans are the king of cultivar deer food. Those acres aren’t being replaced with something even remotely useful. It will be a desert for deer. I would imagine carrying capacity and antler size ultimately would look way worse. We can say big deer grew before beans but that is ignoring all the other variables. Before beans that ground was productive without something else, not a bioengineered plant that repels use. Additionally farming and woodland management looks absolutely nothing like today. Weeds were everywhere, cultivating was done by hand or with very primitive inefficient equipment, fire was in the woods much more frequently, and so on. It would be devastating in moderate to heavy ag areas.

 

[Turkey Creek]

They will have a massive effect. It’s literally taking out hundreds of thousands of acres of maybe the most nutritious deer food we can plant! Beans are the king of cultivar deer food. Those acres aren’t being replaced with something even remotely useful. It will be a desert for deer. I would imagine carrying capacity and antler size ultimately would look way worse. We can say big deer grew before beans but that is ignoring all the other variables. Before beans that ground was productive without something else, not a bioengineered plant that repels use. Additionally farming and woodland management looks absolutely nothing like today. Weeds were everywhere, cultivating was done by hand or with very primitive inefficient equipment, fire was in the woods much more frequently, and so on. It would be devastating in moderate to heavy ag areas.

I knew I shouldn't jump in on this one... LOL. "It will be a desert for deer." My point is areas that are primarily Ag already are. Maybe we will all have to agree on the definition of "areas that are primarily Ag" before we go much further in this thread. I would venture that some of us have a very different concept of what "primarily Ag" looks like. You also need to take into account that all the soybean plots being planted for deer are still going to be planted with the same beans. Non-palatable to deer soybeans are not going to be the only soybean variety available.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I knew I shouldn't jump in on this one... LOL. "It will be a desert for deer." My point is areas that are primarily Ag already are. Maybe we will all have to agree on the definition of "areas that are primarily Ag" before we go much further in this thread. I would venture that some of us have a very different concept of what "primarily Ag" looks like. You also need to take into account that all the soybean plots being planted for deer are still going to be planted with the same beans. Non-palatable to deer soybeans are not going to be the only soybean variety available.

I’m playing worse case and saying science develops a bean that repeals deer. Literally nothing good comes from it except the farmers bottom line. Monoculture ag already has its negatives, one in which wildlife, specifically deer, are omitted from is a desert as far as I’m concerned.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

They will have a massive effect. It’s literally taking out hundreds of thousands of acres of maybe the most nutritious deer food we can plant! Beans are the king of cultivar deer food. Those acres aren’t being replaced with something even remotely useful. It will be a desert for deer. I would imagine carrying capacity and antler size ultimately would look way worse. We can say big deer grew before beans but that is ignoring all the other variables. Before beans that ground was productive without something else, not a bioengineered plant that repels use. Additionally farming and woodland management looks absolutely nothing like today. Weeds were everywhere, cultivating was done by hand or with very primitive inefficient equipment, fire was in the woods much more frequently, and so on. It would be devastating in moderate to heavy ag areas.

My area produces a lot of big bucks. It’s largely dairy farms with alfalfa and corn. Dairy farmers have little use for beans.

Besides. What would be wrong with planting plots of non gmo beans in food plots?


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[S.T.Fanatic]

Hard truth. This would be 100% unnecessary if people would have kept doe numbers in check.

Heard management aside. The did the same thing with corn. My uncle planted it and I think the cost out weighed the yield.


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[omicron1792]

Food plots of soy beans could not keep up if the ag beans were taken out of production. Down south, we tried to plant some soy beans, and they get wiped to the ground. You would literally have to have 20 and 30 acre food plots to feed the deer with soy beans if that was their only source.

Alfalfa doesn’t grow really well down here in the south either.

 

[Bill Loser]

That can also be due to pressure maybe?
But regardless you are correct. Alberta, eastern Mt, North Dakota, aren’t growing beans and they do just fine
I’d actually rather have alfalfa on my ground than beans. Longer food source for deer and just as nutritious

Deer around me.dont touch the alfalfa after November. Haven't had a deer in mine since then at least this year. That's with no other crops available in the immediate area.

 

[cbw]

I was thinking about this original question earlier this month… We have two farms that share a fence. Two different renters. We paid to leave some beans standing in both farms in spots that had great deer bedding close. One farm, the deer hammered the beans. The other farm, they have barely touched. Makes me wonder if varieties are already being developed towards being deer resistant.


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[Howboutthemdawgs]

My area produces a lot of big bucks. It’s largely dairy farms with alfalfa and corn. Dairy farmers have little use for beans.

Besides. What would be wrong with planting plots of non gmo beans in food plots?


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Farmers wouldn’t be replacing beans with something like alfalfa or even a pasture. It would be replaced with the equivalent of concrete in terms of deers use. That’s millions of acres of the number one deer food (subjective but deer researchers have labeled it as such) with shit[/QUOTE]

 

[BenA]

Deer are viewed as pests by many in agriculture. There are two ways to handle pests, control or deterrence. I don't believe many farmers are happy with the control methods, so they may turn to deterrence methods. Altering plants to deter deer is one way they're trying to do that. In an area that was 80%/20% ag to woods, a study showed significant amounts of deer diets were comprised of ag crops during the time they were available. Here's a quote from that study: "After the first sampling period, shrubs and forbs comprised <13% of the deer diet and row crops consisted of >77% of the diet (Table 3). Wheat and soybean crops were the most common food items in deer diets during sampling periods 2 to 4 and the proportion of the diet comprising soybeans increased over the sampling periods (Table 3). " So imagine if a genetic deterrent was proven successful in soybeans and then plants like wheat and corn and alfalfa were also modified to do the same.

 

[Mortenson]

They'll cost an arm and a leg. At nighttime the deer will just fan out a little further and find the more desirable beans. Guys who have placed test plots near woods always find out which varieties/hybrids are preferred over all the others. Deer aren't afraid to walk straight thru crops to get their favorite.

 

[gjs4]

"Milorganite" ... It is byproduct from anaerobic digestors for human waste. Made in Milwaukee. The smell is supposed to deter deer.

Yup- Brown Trout Fertilizer. While it does not smell like a port-a-john....it stinks something fierce

 

[Bill Loser]

Yup- Brown Trout Fertilizer. While it does not smell like a port-a-john....it stinks something fierce

I would disagree, milorganite smells a lot like a pot a jon. I'm a past life I did alot of work at Jones island where they produce milorganite, it's awful. Every 2 weeks you burn your clothes cause you can't get the smell out, and the car....

 

[Telemark]

My guess is it will be highly regional. Some farmers will use them, if they can afford to. Not everyone will.

How will it affect the deer? No idea. But it will probably be regional and affect movement more than numbers. There's plenty of food out there. In much of ag country the limiting factor is cover, not food.

How will it affect hunting? I would wager a tiny percentage of hunters will be affected, but they will be very vocal about it and make it seem like a huge nationwide problem. I presume they will misinterpret their local decrease in deer sightings as a decline in deer herds across the country.