Dorchester Farmers Facing Problem with Sika Deer

(CAMBRIDGE, Md) – Wendell Meekins owns R&W Farms, and showed us some of the damage done to his cornfields.

And he’s just one of many farmers on the Eastern Shore whose taking a hit to his profits.

Wendell says, “All of this damage that you see before you is just 100% pure profit. And so I’m probably going to either break even or probably lose on this corn crop.”

The culprits? Sika Deer. An invasive species to Dorchester County

Farm Bureau President, Michael Knauer says these deer typically run amuck, tearing through cornfields, between 11 P.M. and 4 A.M.

The simple solution would be hunting, but farmers say the permitting process is more than a little difficult.

Knauer tells us, “…you’re not allowed to hunt from sunset, sunrise to sunset. You’re going to spend 200 dollars; You might not see anything..”

It’s all very frustration for Meekins, who says he had a rough 2024, and this year’s crop was one of the best he had seen.

Now he says he’ll be lucky if they’re able to break even.

“To have a crop like this, looking you in the face after a year like that is very hopeful until you come and see like this. And 100% of profit margin is lost to something that I can’t control and belongs to the state,” says Meekins.

Kanauer with the Dorchester County Farm Bureau says they plan to keep putting pressure on state officials to get the deer under control.