COLUMBUS, Ohio — Last month the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced it needs a healthier deer herd. In announcing these plans, DNR Chief Scott Zody and his staff feel it is important to reduce deer bag limits for 2015-16 (from nine deer to six) and limit the availability of deer damage permits to certain times of the year.

Not so fast, said Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF) staffers. "For farmers, the damage done by deer to their crops continues to be a significant problem," wrote OFBF Executive Vice President Jack Fisher in a letter to Zody. "Considering the Division has continued to reduce bag limits in recent years, it is even more critical that farmers have a workable deer damage permit to utilize."

OFBF has been working with the DNR’s Division of Wildlife to ensure farmers still have appropriate access to deer damage permits. OFBF policy supports year-long deer damage permits.

Buckeye State hunters killed 175,745 deer last season, an 8.21 percent decline from the previous year. Many sportsmen in the state have complained the deer herd had shrunk far too much in the Ohio woods where they usually hunt.

"Our goal is more to stabilize rather than to build the deer herd," Zody said. "We don’t want to go too far in reducing the deer population or allowing it to expand."

"OFBF is concerned how the policy change will affect farmers, particularly those with nursery stock, orchards, Christmas trees and landscape plants," said Brandon Kern, OFBF’s director of state policy.

"Those plants and trees are grown in months not covered by the new deer damage permit periods. Those operations’ permits expire during the busiest time of the year for them, and it can be challenging to get an extension. It’s not really workable for them."

DNR will no longer issue year-long deer damage permits but shorter ones that are based on the following crop type: