Stan we can get permits. They used them for that harvest. I had 75 permits that year. Deer numbers were getting out of hand. A hunter could harvest 12-16 deer that year if he used bow, rifle, primitive long gun and took advantage of all the special seasons and special permits.

We had about a 40% die off last year. Not information that is widely spread. In fact the DNR will dispute those numbers but I saw the dead deer with my own eyes. we had forty in one ten acre section of the woods. And total number of deer this year are down but far from down enough. The real problem is/was that deer were becoming so concentrated in some areas that if any disease were to enter the heard the entire heard might be wiped out in days to a week. My one farm is a small peninsula that deer go to hide in the thick woods and marsh areas. Too concentrated and too locked into their little hidden hole.

On one other farm we can no longer raise soybeans. You don't just loose the outside six to ten rows you loose them all by the harvest time. The problem should be better next year. The hunters were given an ultimatum, harvest more deer or loose the lease. They shot seventeen bucks last year and three does. You know the harvest of does is critical to heard management. If they don't remove 24 does this year along with at least a dozen bucks they will not be allowed to return. They have from Sept until Jan with bow, long gun and special primitive seasons. And if they can not show me 36 checking tags for that farm they will be gone. I am tired of deer numbers going up almost every year.

All told my three farms and my fathers farm should have 80-120 deer harvested. Anything less and they will eat us out of house and home unless deer (aids) hits them and they suffer a major die off. I am really afraid that that is coming, some viral infection outbreak that reduces the heard by half or two thirds. You just can not have ever increasing number of animals for ever without some check by mother nature.