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  • From: Richard Stewart <rstewart AT zoomtown.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Deer Fencing
  • Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 10:17:04 -0400

These are my thoughts on this issue.  Its not just a matter of preventing the deer from getting in.  The problem is the population size.

You said thirty deer.

That's a lot of deer and they represent a population far larger than what you see.

I'd start allowing hunters (or hunting yourself) and talk to local authorities in regards to culling programs.

30 deer are a lot without natural predators.  For each doe that survives the season you are looking at 2 additional deer the following season.  That's 60 deer next season and quite possibly 120 the following depending on doe vs buck population and winter survival rates.

Like it or not (I am not suggestion you do or do not) culling has to be part of the program a farmer or gardner either on their own if the property size is large enough, or in unison with other property owners and local governments.

We have areas just inside Cincinnati, Ohio where deer populations reach astounding levels.  In Mt Airy forest a city park of 1400 acres there were over a thousand deer.  That is around ten times the number of deer that land can support.  Hunters in rural areas outside of Cincinnati can take as many 1 buck and three doe, which means we can keep our population reasonably in check.   We can also request nuisance permits and when that deer is taken it is given to the local food bank via local game butcher (as are the healthy deer that are culled in local parks).  The problem is with the local park that is three miles away.  As populations increase there, they force those populations between us and the park into our range.

Deer need predators (both for the health of the deer and the health of the environment), since we cannot seem to live with their natural predators we have to fill that role.

It is simply one part of the puzzle.

An 8' fence alone will not stop deer when they are starving and want to eat.  They will jump it.  At least our whitetail can and they will ignore electric to get to good grazing in pasture (they get caught on our plastic rope pasture fencing all the time even with full charge running through it.  Horses will avoid it at all cost but deer will drop a line.

If you only use fence (which is certainly an option) then run it high, using one design or another.

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106



On May 28, 2009, at 9:09 AM, Richard Robinson wrote:

On Thu, 28 May 2009 08:01:14 -0400, Richard Stewart wrote:


 If done properly I'll argue that deer, especially, for smaller
 farmer/gardeners, should be a manageable problem that requires observation,
 numbers management (hunting), and simple deterrents with the understanding of
 deer needs during poor foraging periods.

I'd like to believe that's true, but here in the rural suburbs of Boston, I've got probably 30 deer who move through my 10 acre property, part of a much larger population that now permeates the entire area. As one of the few farms around, I've got the best winter forage in the neighborhood. I'd let them have my overwintering clover and rye, and the run of my hay fields in the spring, but they don't stop there--the rhododendrons, the white cedars, the tulips, the raspberries, the whole huge garden, the pumpkins in the fall. I don't see a solution other than complete exclusion from the property. I'm still puzzling the best way to do that, and am leaning toward 8-foot plastic fence.

rant over...

--
Richard Robinson
http://www.nasw.org/users/rrobinson/


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