Every year, farmers face crop damage from wildlife. Farmers are often undercompensated for the losses caused by wildlife through the wildlife compensation program. The idea of compensation is great, but the real issue is an inability to control the wildlife problem.

This year, farmer Jim Burrows, tracked the yield of his soybean field and compared the section closest to the highway to the section closest to the woods. The yield difference was 700 kilograms per acre. This works out to 35,000 tonnes of soybeans lost from wildlife damage on his farm.

The assessment by the officials of the wildlife compensation program stated a total loss of 1.605 tonnes. The assessments are done based on visual inspection by the field agent and historic yield averages. Visual inspection doesn’t provide facts, and historic yields are low because of several years of deer pressure.

Extension specialists have been approached to set up plot cages and do yield counts in the soybean fields next year. It has been made clear this research would not be used as part of the inspection process.

Jim Burrows says it is obvious that the deer population has exploded. Restrictions on doe harvesting, changes in farming practices and a limited hunting season all contributed to this population explosion. Even with the lifting of the restriction on doe harvest, and the addition of bag limits for an early hunt, the population is increasing. If the population isn’t controlled through DNR, there will continue to be an increase in compensation claims for wildlife damage.

The provincial government needs to take ownership of this problem. It protects and regulates the deer and hunting. The Department of Agriculture needs a credible way to evaluate the damage in all crops.

Burrows`s loss of soybean to deer this year was somewhere between 1.6 and 35 tonnes, a difference in value of over $11,000. Losses of that magnitude on one farm should illustrate the seriousness of the problem.

Source - http://thechronicleherald.ca/