Farmers celebrate annual Doe Harvest challenge, explain why the event is important

MARYLAND. – Agriculture is one of the biggest economic drivers on the Eastern Shore, but one animal in particular causes headaches for farmers across the region.

“A deer bites the corn stalk in just the right place, it’s done, and you get nothing,” said farmer, Steve Hurley.

Back in 2019, farmers from Wicomico, Somerset, Worcester and Dorchester counties came together to try to find ways to help mitigate the deer populations that were destroying their crops. They wanted to find a way to engage the community, so they turned their challenge into the Doe Harvest Challenge.

“This is to help reduce the deer population in these counties, because of the severe deer damage on the farms,” Hurley said.

Hunters from across the four counties are tasked with killing doe that encroach on agricultural land.
Farmer Lingin Spicer put the monetary loss in perspective, saying the farmers can’t reach the max revenue potential if the deer continue to eat their crops.

“We’re all taking a hit, some more than others, but it’s not unusual for a sizable farming operation to take a $50-100k monetary hit from deer. That’s a pretty big dent in your salary,” Spicer said.

The goal isn’t to eliminate the deer population entirely. Spicer rents out parts of his land to hunters, so he actually needs the deer to stick around.

“The deer hunters are another crop for us. The last thing that we want to happen is for these deer to be annihilated. I’ll lose a crop,” Spicer said.

Farmer Hurley said controlling the deer population limits the chances of a harmful disease outbreak.

“If the population gets out of hand, then we’ll have disease come in and that will take care of the population,” Hurley said. “I think that it’s more humane to do it his way and keep the herd healthy and have more deer out there, for the hunters to hunt in the future.”