Many crops serve as mealtime buffets for their wildlife neighbors, but Kentucky has some resources to help.

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Farm families in this state and across the country will admit there are many issues they must deal with every year in getting their crops from the planting stage to harvest, and damage from hungry wildlife is but one of those.

As certain wildlife populations continue to grow in numbers, so does the need to fend off these critters, especially as profit margins remain slim.

Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) Commissioner Rich Storm said farmers have options when it comes to alleviating some of the problems, first by identifying the culprits.

“If they can verify that's what's causing that damage, and usually it is caused by the deer population, my first recommendation is to engage with our staff, a county game warden or biologist, to give you the options,” he said. “I would recommend they visit our website, fw.ky.gov, and then go to the search tab and type in “find my county contact.”

Storm also said that individual landowners could network with fellow hunters, church organizations, and even groups that have an interest in hunting and try to recommend a higher antlerless harvest.

“There are groups like the Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry (KHFH) that would love to acquire those deer, and so that would be our preferred methodology,” he said. “But the department will issue tags to farmers based on depredation. And then ultimately, the farmer has a right to protect their land and their crops.

In partnering with an organization like KHFH, Storm said the protein provided by the harvested animal would certainly be welcomed by food banks to help feed those in need.

Roger LaPointe, KHFH Executive Director, said that the organization’s mission is to alleviate hunger and malnutrition in Kentucky by processing and distributing donated venison to those in need and to provide an outlet for hunters to help their communities and provide environmental stewardship through wildlife management.

“And wildlife management basically is where the farmers come in,” he said. “We're helping them to keep the deer population down and so they don't sustain as much crop damage.”

LaPointe added that there is plenty of information on their website for those looking for assistance with deer issues on their land.

“Our website explains how to donate a deer and has a list of all of our processors on it,” he said. “The first step is to work with their private lands biologists with the KDFWR to determine if they can get a nuisance or a depredation permit.”

The KHFH website also contains information about their Kentucky Whitetail Access program that matches landowners with hunters.

While the lion’s share of the crop damage could be attributed to the deer populations, there are other animals that share in the feeding frenzies, including turkeys, bears, and raccoons.

“We have a fair amount of crop damage that comes from black bears, and turkeys, but probably one of the most villainized creatures that I hear about is the raccoon that tends to wreak havoc,” Storm said. “Even small farms can have dozens and dozens of raccoons that are causing problems to both corn and soybeans, not to mention they'll tear up your farm equipment.”

Storm noted that many wildlife populations are growing, especially the numbers of Whitetail deer.

“We're fairly confident that we now have over a million Whitetails in this state, and not many years ago, we had the low hundreds of thousands, so they have persisted in higher levels,” he said. “With an abundance of wildlife co-existing with cars, and in subdivisions, it's just become more common to have an occurrence between wildlife and people. “

Because of that, Storm urges drivers to be extra careful and mindful of deer near roadways, especially during the month of November.

“I would also remind people to let wild animals be wild and try not to feed a bear, or try to pet a raccoon, or a deer,” he said. “Those things can be extremely dangerous, and we have a tendency to want to humanize wildlife, but they need to be wild.”

Dustin White is one of the four children of four brothers who have farmed in Union County for generations. Over the years, he has seen wildlife damage to their crops increase as wildlife populations increase.

“Sometimes you'll see a group of maybe 30 deer out in the pasture field and in the crop fields, and even in the winter they will graze off the wheat,” he said. “There's a lot of deer pressure, and more and more of it all the time. They just seem to be everywhere. We even see deer tracks where they come around the grain bins at night.”

During the early planting season, some of the damaged areas can be replanted, but later in the season, it’s too late for some planted areas to recover. And deer are not the only wildlife the White family is dealing with.

“Early in the season, we can replant where birds and turkeys have been and where the deer have eaten the soybeans down to just the stem,” he said. “This year we replanted 250 acres of soybeans along the edges of the fields where the crop had been eaten down.”

But once the corn has tasseled or has ears, the deer move to it, causing damage at a stage of growth when nothing can be done.

From an economic standpoint, the cost of the damage can become enormous, and appears to be getting worse over the past several years, White added. Last year alone, he estimates a loss of between $150,000 to possibly $175,000.

But there are other factors that contribute to crop loss, including weather events, so White said it is often hard to get a solid number on how much wildlife damage is costing the farm, but the number is significant.

While losing a certain amount of a crop due to local wildlife populations may never completely go away, Kentucky has a network of organizations working together to help alleviate some of the problems.

Storm said we live in a place where there is an abundance of opportunities to hunt and fish, and by working together, some of the crop-related issues can be addressed.

“God has blessed us and done a lot for us as we live in a place where wildlife conservation and farming can coexist,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I’m proud to be a Kentuckian.”

Editor’s note: Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry is one of the four non-profit organizations that benefit each year from the Kentucky Farm Bureau Insurance’s Clays for a Cause fundraising sporting clays event.