And so would I

lowith out doubt cause with no bait (well suppose to be not bait) there deer will be on the plots

Are all of you that misinformed that you think if they dont ban baitingCWD willmagically spread at an alarming rate throughout the entire lower peninsula?They are banning the use of bait in the entirelower pen., seems a little crazy to me when they have only found 1 deer inside a fence with the disease. Ban the use of bait around the "hot zone", after all the testing of harvested animals is done, then decide whether to change the regs or not. You all have to realize that this is hurting our economy, people are returning licenses because they cant hunt over bait, littlemom & pop stores are losing a ton of money, not just the farmers.It s the states fault we have to deal with this anyway, our state has over 700 captive cervid facilitiesof which the state regulates. I think if CWD is in the wild here, baiting for the next 3 months will be a wash compared to the fact that our southern lower peninsula is ridiculously overpopulated with deer. I certainly dont want CWD in our wild deer, the baiting ban will do nothing but hurt, not help.

But it also says this....

"or foods that are placed as
a result of using normal farming practices"

In the same sentence.

I am pretty informed since i went to a meet 2 nights ago bout it and there is another one oct 5 IONIA highschool if you wanna go


but right now they want to elminate what they canthat COULD in ANY way transmit this. such as baiting...there are so many pros and cons. but nothing we the people can do i dont think sueing will do anything but who knows. all i know is i have till wed to prepare for my hunt

I agree some measures have to be taken,but they are going to the extreme, unless of course there are more cases that they are not telling us about............
Ethically, I dont care if they ban baiting, not a big deal to me. But the economic impact that this will have for this year is not good. I understand banning baiting in the hot zone, but are state is not exactly small, there is no logical reason to ban it for the entire lower peninsula.

yea i think they should ban it in the red zone

Im not sure wich side to take on this one. Im not a big fan of sueing the State , but the entire DNR in Michigan is a joke, and people are gettin tired of it. This whole problem could have been avoided if they wouldnt have over reacted. 1 deer in southern Michigan in a private enclosure tested positive, so they ban baiting in the entire Lower penninsula? Why not ban a certain radius, have mandatory deer check stations throughout the L.P.? Farmers could still sell their crops, and the state could get some data from the check stations. The system needs some major fixing here, and the people worst hit from this are the farmers. I see why they are pissed. I havent talked to a single person here in Michigan that doesnt think the DNR over did this one, and if someone should be screaming the loudest, the farmers should.

I don't think they overreacted. There, now you know one. This and the early anterless season are two things I think they have done right recently.

Man, I wish I could get some Wisconsin Guys to share how messed up Wisconsin is on CWD and how blown out of proportion it is and has been the last few years. I will admit I was wrong about the Sugar beet farmers.Sueing the state wouldn't be the best idea, but a few here and there to get there point across might help with the states crazy decision. I didn't realize that sugar beets could be used efficiently for ethanol, the only problem is opposed to other crops, they can't nearly produce the energy that other crops can and due to there size and the amount it costs to transport them to a facility when they can be turned into fuel. Also, the have to be processed EXTREMELY quick due to the loss of Sucrose once they leave the ground. When they are planted in most areas that are not in the immediate area of a processing plant, there main use in Michigan is as deer feed. Plus, with Ethanol prices over $4 it is financially sound to use Sugar Beets as Ethanol, but once Ethanol dips below $3 a gallon, it is not worthwhile to use Sugar beets as fuel.True fuel is up, but with the sliding economy and with oil sliding right now, (Peaked at $147/barrel in July now trading around $100/barrel, even though you don't see it at the pumps yet!![:'(]) ethanol may start to loose a little interest.(Sorry about the rambling, I'm a commidities trader so I watch oil here and there).

Whether your for baiting or against it, it really doesn't matter. Unless you are against baiting for the last 10 years in Michigan, which is fine, how you can see that a state wide ban it appropriate? If you are against baiting, that is fine, but if you are against it because of this, do some research on WI and CDW. They have had it there for a long time and somehow it is stuck in mainly a 5 county area with some overlying counties getting a few cases. The Michigan DNRthinks its Armageddon right now. Ban baiting in a 10 county area around where it was found in captivity, test all the deer that come out of that area and go from there. The chances that this disease got out are quite slim since non of the deer that were livingwith the infected deer in captivity tested positive for the disease.

I feel as if Im coming off completely against this ban, but really Im not. Ive hunted deer all over the midwest and only used bait in Michigan. I guess I am more worried about the road side stands that I see going up to deer camp that barely make it selling produce during the year and Deer and Bear bait is the only other way they make income. For such a looming economical hit to 1000's of people with no warning all because of a scare just seems a little out of place for me. I guess I am worry more about the some of the people where I hunt rather than a infected deer in a high fence hundreds of miles from where I hunt.