JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Mississippi hunters heading into deer season this year have a new option for feeding deer, but wildlife officials say several old rules and a complete ban in some parts of the state still apply.
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks changed its supplemental feeding rule to allow hunters to broadcast feed on the ground, rather than requiring it to come from a stationary feeder.
“The only difference this year is where it used to have to be in a stationary covered feeder. They can actually evenly broadcast it on the ground now,” said Maj. Brent Madden, who oversees the department’s cadet training program.
Madden said hunters can now spread feed by hand or with a mechanical spreader, including one mounted on a four-wheeler, as long as it does not end up in a pile.
“It just cannot be piled up,” Madden said. “Mostly because if you keep piling in the same area, what’s on bottom will mold and it’s detrimental to the animal’s health, especially turkeys.”
Hunters still must stay 100 yards from a property line, and baiting remains illegal on public land, Madden said. Stationary feeders, including spin-cast feeders, covered trough feeders and gravity feeders, are all still legal to use, as are salt and mineral licks.
“All those are still legal as long as you’re not in a CWD zone,” he said.
Madden said the change is intended to help slow the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD, a fatal neurological illness that affects deer. Concentrated feeding, such as several deer eating from the same feeder chutes or trough, increases opportunities for the disease to spread from animal to animal, he said.
“I think the original plan was that simply because you take a gravity feeder, they’re eating it out of the same chutes on a feeder … or they’re eating out of the same trough over and over and over again,” Madden said. “You spread it across a decent size area and you’re spreading it out a little more.”
Madden compared the risk to how illness spreads among children in a classroom.
“It’s equivalent of, you know, if you’ve got children in school and two kids show up with the flu and they’re all in the same classroom, six hours out of the day, that increases chances of passing the flu on,” he said.
Madden said the change could especially benefit bow hunters, who often hunt before food plots have been planted.
“A lot of your bow hunters are hunting acorns, falling, things of that,” Madden said. “You could evenly spread it in your area around where you’re going to be hunting, where your bow’s staying, not your traditional food plot or just a trough or anything like that. It doesn’t disturb the area as much.”
The new rule does not apply in Mississippi’s Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zones, which include areas in and around Warren, Claiborne and Issaquena counties, along with zones in north Mississippi and the Gulf Coast region. All supplemental feeding, including feeders, salt licks and mineral licks, remains banned in those zones, according to MDWFP.
“That’s correct. Yeah, it’s still no feeding, no mineral sites, anything. Nothing has changed in the CWD zones,” Madden said.
According to MDWFP, the ban exists because direct contact with the prions that cause CWD is the most effective way the disease spreads, and research indicates saliva may carry the highest concentration of those prions. Concentrating deer at feeding sites increases the chances of that contact, the agency says.
Hunters caught feeding deer in a CWD zone face a Class 2 violation under the state’s supplemental feeding rule, Madden said. Fines and court costs vary by county.
The rule change comes as Mississippi’s deer population has grown significantly in recent years, according to Mississippi State University Extension Service. The state’s deer population is estimated at 1.75 million, and that number has just exploded in recent years.
At the same time, Dykes said hunters are harvesting roughly half as many deer as they used to, which has allowed the population to continue climbing. The overabundance of deer has also led to increased conflicts with farmers. A 2025 MSU survey found deer damaged 17,830 acres of corn, cotton and soybeans statewide, for an economic impact of about $4.6 million, though Dykes said the true cost is likely higher.
MDWFP’s feeding rule change was not made in response to the state’s deer population growth, but Madden said reducing disease risk remains the driving factor behind years of changes to the feeding rule.
“The biggest thing on changing it is the CWD,” Madden said. “It’s not concentrating all the feed in one area.”
Madden also encouraged hunters to double check their hunting licenses before heading out this season, since expiration dates and card numbers can change even with auto-renewal.
Hunters can check license status and season information through MDWFP’s mobile app, Madden said.
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