By Emmy Powell<\/p>\n
Communications Specialist<\/p>\n
Deer populations continue to grow across Texas, and some are helping themselves to farmers\u2019 corn crops.<\/p>\n
Matagorda County farmer Bob Reed said deer are a daily sight in his corn fields, especially on farms near creek bottoms that provide ideal habitat and cover.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see them every day, pretty much all day long, and the population seems to be growing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The deer feed along field edges and leave behind visible damage. Some stalks have been eaten nearly to the ground.<\/p>\n
Reed said the full impact on yields is difficult to measure, but the growing deer pressure is becoming harder to ignore.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do what we can in the fall during hunting season to harvest as many deer as we can,\u201d Reed said. \u201cBut really and truly, it doesn\u2019t appear to me that we\u2019re gaining on the population.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Reed participates in the Managed Lands Deer Program (MLDP), which allows additional harvest opportunities beyond a standard hunting license, controlling the population remains a challenge.<\/p>\n
Last year, Reed\u2019s corn crop produced record yields despite noticeable deer damage, but he said there was no reliable way to determine how much production was lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really have no way of quantifying how much yield was lost. I just know the deer are eating corn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s growing season also brought weather-related concerns. Dry conditions early in the season stressed the crop, although recent rains have helped improve overall conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe corn is tasseling, pollinating and pretty much on schedule,\u201d Reed said. \u201cEverything really looks good now. We\u2019re just not sure at this point what impact those dry conditions early on may have with yields at harvest time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the combination of wildlife pressure and unpredictable weather highlights the many challenges farmers face each season alongside rising input costs.<\/p>\n
Despite those obstacles, Reed said his commitment to farming comes from a lifelong passion for agriculture and a belief in its importance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do it because I have a passion for it. I love it,\u201d Reed said. \u201cI understand the importance of it, not only to our local economy, but more importantly to the security of our country. I think it\u2019s extremely important that we continue to be able to feed our own country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Emmy Powell Communications Specialist Deer populations continue to grow across Texas, and some are helping themselves to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[43021,31554,72888,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-312446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-corn","tag-deer","tag-matagorda-county","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}