Holy Deer Damage

[DMarley83]

Stopped by a farm recently and holy s***.

Never seen anything quite this bad before.

This is an 80 acre piece with about 60 acres tillable.

It's like someone ran a 45' Bush hog through it.

The pictures do not do it justice!

 

[Bassattackr]

Deer or raccoons?

 

[T_Max]

I'm seeing the same thing this year for the first time.

 

[DMarley83]

Deer or raccoons?

Racoons don't usually eat the top 1/2 of the stock. I understand it's hard to tell the difference in this Pic.

No doubt deer....

 

[Daver]

Stopped by a farm recently and holy s***.

Never seen anything quite this bad before.

This is an 80 acre piece with about 60 acres tillable.

It's like someone ran a 45' Bush hog through it.

The pictures do not do it justice!

How big is the plot? The pic may be misleading, but it doesn't like it is very large. Deer can absolutely do that type of damage and in a small plot, it only takes a couple of "trained" deer to hit those plants every day and pretty soon all you have is stalks. (Don't ask me how I know. )

We have had to fence them out to grow any corn at our place. But, knock on wood, we have the best looking corn this year that we have had in years...but the fence is holding them out.

 

[DMarley83]

Not a plot. Its a 60 acre field

However a funnel entrance to the field in a high density area.

Was just caught off guard.... this just happened in the last couple weeks

 

[Hardwood11]

Get some cameras up by the corn & you’ll find out in a hurry …

 

[DMarley83]

So guys are saying the coons are eating from the silt up without tearing down the stock. Interesting.... must be big coons...Def gonna get some cameras up I gotta see these big sobs!

 

[Daver]

Not a plot. Its a 60 acre field

However a funnel entrance to the field in a high density area.

Was just caught off guard.... this just happened in the last couple weeks

Yikes! Please tell me the whole field wasn't this bad! If you are just losing the first, say, 50' to 100', of a 60 acre field that is one thing. If you are seeing this amount of damage over a wide area of that field, then it is time for some serious doe patrol.

 

[Daver]

So guys are saying the coons are eating from the silt up without tearing down the stock. Interesting.... must be big coons...Def gonna get some cameras up I gotta see these big sobs!

In my experience, damage "high" on the plant (silk/tassel) is deer. Stalks knocked over, etc, is coon.

 

[Bucksnbears]

I'm with Daver .

 

[Bassattackr]

So guys are saying the coons are eating from the silt up without tearing down the stock. Interesting.... must be big coons...Def gonna get some cameras up I gotta see these big sobs!

Who is saying that?

I just asked the question.. hard to tell much detail from your sucky photos

 

[Steve-O]

I'm looking at the grass on the edge of the plot...to me that is suspicious. It's laying flat in one direction.. towards the photographer...I can't see the stalks all that well but is there a good suspicion for a wind event? I'm not sure of your area and any recent storms.

 

[DMarley83]

Does remind me of storm damage but no storms here. It's 100% Deer damage.

As usual there is of course some coon damage in places as well, but this is the end of the farm nearest to the cover as well as a narrow part of the field leading to the main part of the field.

The field as a whole looks very good and the corn is doing phenomenally well.

However when the farmers see this end of the field it is where the "kill them all" mentality comes from....

I was surprised when I got to this end and that was the reason I took the sucky photos.