Imagine investing your time, effort and money to grow a crop to make a living by feeding and fueling the world, only for it to lose its full potential in its early stages thanks to an army of white-tailed deer. While most farmers will expect some minor crop loss from the birds and the bucks, for those such as Minnesota Soybean Growers Association (MSGA) Director Brad Hovel, the bucks are adding up to some serious financial losses by eating away at his profitability, literally.

“It’s costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars in loss of production over the years because of how much they’re eating,” said Hovel, who farms in Goodhue County in southeastern Minnesota.

For just his family farm’s soybean crop, Hovel estimated it’s not uncommon to lose up to $50,000 annually in production losses, plus thousands of dollars in preventative measures. Most of the damage from deer occurs in the spring while the crop is still in its development stages.

“Usually during our first spray application in the spring is when we can visualize the damage, but once you can visualize the damage it’s already too late,” Hovel said. “The damage has been done, and they will continue to feed.”

Managing the herd What’s unique about the deer depredation issues devastating Hovel’s crops is that it is not a widespread issue. It’s occurring among isolated populations of deer concentrated in certain areas in Minnesota.

“Sometimes it’s a geography issue where you have a field surrounded by forests and sometimes, like in Brad’s  case, it’s a management issue where you have neighbors that are only harvesting a few mature bucks each year,” said Eric Nelson, wildlife damage program supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “But in either case, you’re dealing with isolated pockets of large deer populations.”

So, what’s been done and what can stop the plundering of Hovel’s soybean crop? There are essentially two main options: Find a way to keep deer

away and/or eliminate the deer. “We know it’s not cost effective to put a 10-foot fence around a 600-acre field, but you can use repellents such as Plantskydd, which is usually pretty effective at keeping the deer away,” Nelson said. “Unfortunately, it’s expensive because you have to reapply every time it rains, or you have a dewy morning.”

Hovel has maintained a strong relationship with the DNR over the years as they work together to manage the deer herd populations. Between the nuisance tags, regular hunting season and car and other accidents that occurred in 2023, Hovel estimated they were able to remove between 80-85 deer from the herd, with most of those being the reproducing does.

“This isn’t a hunt; it’s a population-reduction program. We allow them to hunt at night using spotlights, they can use rifles in shotgun zones and it’s open to bucks and does,” Nelson said. “We typically encourage the taking of does, but bucks are doing damage, too.”

Policy on the pipeline

Thanks to testimony from farmers such as Hovel, MSGA helped in lawmakers passing a bipartisan bill in 2024 that provided $50,000 for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) to conduct a deer crop and fence damage study. A report from that study is expected to be finalized in January of 2025, which MDA hopes to use to pass future legislation to support farmers and their depredation issues.

MSGA’s advocacy made an impact, said MDA Commissioner Thom Petersen, who visited Hovel’s farm in Goodhue County to learn more about the damage to his operation.

“I have to give Brad Hovel and MSGA credit for leading the charge and speaking up about their deer depredation issues. Our conversations with Brad have led to other farmers coming forward and shedding some light on the situation,” Petersen said. “We’ve been talking to a lot of other interested groups and farmers as well, and we’re hopeful it will lead to some possible solutions.”

The state of Minnesota currently provides compensation for elk depredation issues in northwest Minnesota, but Commissioner Petersen notes that it’s not an apples-to-oranges comparison.

“The main difference is there are only about 200 elk that the state manages in the far northern part of the state,” he said, “whereas we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of whitetail deer statewide.”

Petersen also hopes this study will clarify which tools are already out there and what farmers can use to address the issue.

“As a farmer myself, and one who’s not a hunter, I do have neighbors who do hunt who may have access to tags but not land,” Petersen said. “We need to take advantage of our current resources to help thin the herd where need be.”

The Minnesota DNR encourages farmers dealing with nuisance deer and other depredation issues to contact their regional wildlife manager or visit the Living with Wildlife section on the DNR website.