It never grows back. We've been lucky, they haven't really been able to keep up with the corn this year, so we'll probably get away with losing about 10 percent of our tonnage. Last year, no way. With the drought, things were slow to grow and the deer just killed us. That's a familiar lament among the state's farmers, according to Mike Pechart, director of local government programs and wildlife specialist for the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, an advocacy group representing about 28,000 farm families statewide.
Farmers get no financial reimbursement for that damage, either.
Pechart says that while there's some support in the state legislature for paying farmers for losses attributable to deer, there won't be checks in the mail any time soon since no one's sure where that money would come from. In light of that, a farmer's only option is to limit the number of deer. The Pennsylvania Game Commission, which is responsible for setting deer seasons and bag limits, hasn't been much help in that arena, Pechart says, and the situation has gotten worse in recent years. We've always had a tough relationship with the Game Commission. It's been in the last four years, though, with these commissioners, that they just don't listen to us.