Has anyone seen the release from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources that has banned baiting in the entire Lower Peninsula of Michigan because they have identified one case of CWD in a penned animal in a county in southern Michigan?

The Michigan DNR is clueless. Did you know that in Michigan when you high fence your property you have to kill all of the deer inside, then bring in fully tested deer so that they know you are starting with a clean herd? Unless you double high fence your property, that is useless. Your deer will still have nose to nose contact with deer outside your penned facility unless you have an extra high fence to separate the animals.

Now that they have banned baiting in all of the Lower Peninsula, what is going to happen to all of the farmers who have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in crops that they typically sell to hunters in the fall? And what is the difference between a plot of alfalfa and a bale of alfala scattered about?

What is next? No planting food plots? Cut down your fruit trees? Cut down your mast bearing trees?

This is a "knee-jerk" response to an isolated incident. I can smell law suits coming from damaged farmers.

Jeff
Mountain Home, TX

Yea there were a couple threads on that topic this past week.

This is not totally accurate. A good friend of mine runs a high fence in the U.P. and I was there when he fenced it. What actually happens, is about 3/4 of the fence is constructed, and then there are endless deer drives to push the game out, all game, including coyotes, fox, everything that can't fly has to go. We did drives for 2 weeks before the fence could be permanently sealed. Upon sealing the fence, the DNR sends an army in to make sure that no wild game remains inside, and all deer brought in are from other facilities, not wild animals. You are correct on the double fence part. He has two fences, about 16 feet apart, surrounding the entire acreage (1450).

As for the crops, they will get sold regardless. The amount of corn hunters buy compared to the harvest is minimal. If you harvest at 150 bushels per acre, that is roughly84 100# bags per acre, the average hunter where I am at, goes through maybe 20 bags in a season. So, I think the farmers will survive just fine. What grounds do the farmers have for a lawsuit? If you own a restaurant, you can't sue everyone that walks by for not eating, right?

I coulnd't agree more than the MI DNR is worthless, but a baiting ban is far from the worst thing that they could do. Plenty of states have phenomenal hunting without baiting. People will make the argument that deer need the food from hunters to survive the winter. Well, what happens to that deer that eats for 3 weeks, then there is nothing for 11 more months? How much help does that three weeks of corn really amount to? Not a whole hell of a lot. If nothing else, the deer will actually move how they are supposed to during the seasons, and may even reduce the pressure in areas, which would be a welcome change.

it is no secret that the mi dnr has supported a ban on baiting for years. All they needed was an excuse. it has been years since they have found tb in the tb zone and they havent lifted the baiting ban there. Sadly the truth of the matter is all the stores are going to sell corn, sugar beets, carrots and all the Cmore bucks you can get your hands on and hunters are still going to put it down. MIdnr is going to step up enforcement of baiting out side the already banned tb zone but sadly they are majorly understaffed basically meaning unless someone calls on you you have a better chance of winning the lottery than randomly getting caught. Baiting has been abused in michigan and in my opinion skilled hunters how have baited will be fine but hack hunterswho have relied on piles upon piles of sugar beets to get a deer most likely stay home and that isjust fine with me. Some hunters here have never considered picking up a rattle bagor call and as mentioned in a post before couldnt tell you what a pinch point isor how to read a topo map.

Personally, happy to hear of banning baiting. It really does make me laugh when I hear self described hunters bragging how great they are when hunting over bait. Glad to see they are keeping the " hunt " in hunting.

I have long been a fan of reducing the amount of baiting. The worst thing that happens in our area of Northern Michigan (Charlevoix and Antrim Counties) is that folks from downstate come up, ignore the two gallon limit and pile 500 pounds of garbage out in the woods.

The next thing that happens is that all of the deer go nocturnal. The feed is there 24/7 and they know they are safe after dark. The trail cams prove it.

We switched to broadcast spinners several years ago and they work wonderfully. They are far from a sure thing. The area where we hunt is rolling and wooded with flowing creeks. It offers a place to rest and get a drink but there is little browse in the area unless someone happens to be logging. Even the wildlife biologists have told us that the deer pretty much have to pack their lunch in with them.

We have opened up areas of the forest and planted clover but the 100 foot tall trees really choke out most of the sunlight. It is hard to get anything to grow.

There aren't any good "pinch points" but they do tend to get lazy and use saddles in the ridges.

We have found that if we pour out field rye just prior to the season starting, it will germinate without tilling and will grow 4-8" tall by the time we are hunting. They seem to like the stuff and best yet, the raccoon and squirrels aren't interested in it.

I'm going up in October and November this year but I'm not taking my hunting gear. I just taking my cribbage board and a couple of bowling balls. I already have my buck picked out down here.

I wouldnt lose sleep worrying over whether a farmer can sell corn at this point in time.

i agree w/ crokit!

dp