LANSING, Mich. – Farmers in Michigan can now shoot deer throughout the growing season to protect their crops and choose anyone they want to join them in hunts.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Natural Resources Commission have teamed up to loosen the state’s crop protection restrictions because of growing widespread complaints about yield losses from an exploding deer population.

“The damage is just all season long,” said John O’Hair, who raises mostly corn, soybeans and wheat on about 1,300 acres in Sanilac County in the thumb section of the state. “It’s nothing to drive down the road and see 50 to 60 deer in a field,” he said.

The leaves on soybean plants, because of their sugar content, seem to be what deer like most on a farm’s menu. There are so many deer, O’Hair said the leaves are eaten at such a pace the plant cannot produce the beans.

O’Hair said he’s now raising corn and hay instead of soybeans in some of his fields where damage was heaviest within 100 yards or so from the edge of a woods. He gave up several years ago after losing his entire soybean crop on those strips of ground from hungry deer stepping right out of the woods and into his fields.

“I just threw up my hands,” he said.

Farmer Rob Steenbergh said he’s lost 50 percent or more of his soybean crop to deer in some of his smaller fields beside some woods.

“In some areas, they just decimate the whole thing,” he said.

Steenbergh, who farms about 800 acres in Sanilac County, also serves on the Michigan Hunt Collaborative, which formed last year to try to help with crop losses from the overpopulation of deer.

MHC hosts deer kills and is involved in things like encouraging youth to become interested in hunting deer because of a sharp decline in the number of hunters over the past 20 to 30 years.

Steenbergh welcomed the loosened restrictions as a first of what could take many steps to ease or solve the problem.

“There’s a lot of work to be done. This isn’t going to be a quick fix,” he said.

According to the MDNR’s Wildlife Division, crop protection permits to kill female deer are now valid during the entire growing season instead of just one- or two-week intervals. In addition, permits can be applied for in advance and activated once the crop is in the ground.

Crops eligible for protection permits were also expanded to include alfalfa, winter wheat and, in some cases, overwintered cover crops.

Farmers can also have family members, friends or anyone else who wants to take part join them in hunts to protect their crops.

Previously, farmers were restricted to choosing from a state designated list of shooters on who they could invite to take part in hunts.

“It was a big hassle,” Steenbergh said.

For several years now, deer in Michigan, especially in the southern parts, have been considered the costliest pest for farmers whose losses, depending on the size and location of each farm, can reach into the tens of thousands of dollars.

O’Hair said the loosened restrictions might help a little but a lot more should be done.

He suggested allowing bucks to be killed with crop protection permits and other things such as making the $100 permits available at no cost to encourage higher participation.

O’Hair said he understands DNR must strike a balance in terms of public perception but, in this case, the problem deserves extreme action.

“Maybe my personal ideas are a little more radical but I’m the guy that’s seeing my paycheck chewed up,” he said.

O’Hair also expressed concern about the number of farmers willing to hunt deer in the heat and dense brush of summer and how many small processors busy with beef cattle and hogs will accept deer.

He also said the recovery and delivery of the animals once they’re killed will have to be much quicker because of the higher temperatures. 

“It’s not like in November when you shoot a deer and you can hang it in your garage for the weekend and then take it somewhere to get it processed. When it’s 85 degrees out there, the flies are on it,” he said.

Steenburgh said the key to the loosened restrictions is participation from farmers.

“If farmers take advantage of the program, it should help but it’s not going to be a cure all,” he said.