Swathing 2nd and 3rd cutting irrigated alfalfa.
Absolutely the shortest hay I've ever cut. Outside borders next to the trees are a total loss.
Sickening the amount of damage. And I know it wasn't grasshoppers, the tops are nipped off by deer.
Googled it, figure a deer eats 10lbs per day?
Field I'm on now has a house on one side, nothing but a couple hundred acres of cover on the opposite side.
2' tall by the house, maybe 6" by the trees.
Figure we lost +100 ton of prime feed this summer. $30k.
And yeah, we let locals hunt but they won't shoot does.
I'm at a loss, no pun intended.
Interesting Sam. I was wondering about how much a deer might eat. And how that would affect a farmer/rancher.
Neighbor had about 40 deer, mostly does and this years fawns, one decent buck, feeding in his pivot field Tuesday evening. Happens every fall and in the spring when the alfalfa comes up. His swather broke for a minute a couple of weeks back, I saw him and stopped. He fixed it the next day apparently, but left what was left to cut for his cows. Said with the drought there's no graze on his land and his allotments for them, so he just gave them about 1/2 of his last cutting, some of which I know he usually ships out as "dairy quality" stuff.
at 10lbs ration per deer per day, the neighbor is losing between 250-500 lbs of product per day depending on the number of deer I see there every day, and not telling if more show up at night. Doesn't seem to mind, as I've never heard of him putting in for a depredation permit. And there is no doe season in our area so those critters are safe when they go into the public land to bed down even.
Can't do it this year, maybe next season I look into coming up your way and "removing" a doe for you if your locals won't do it. I'm old, will have my own place to sleep, and I'm past the point of abusing pillows so you won't have to worry about that.
