Patrick.long

I do not think pumpkins will be their first choice but during the slim winters, they might.

Oldtimr

You would be wrong, they like pumpkins, they also like potatoes.

GOOD OLE BOY

They don,t like em,they luv em.

mrbb

well I think like everything, EACH deer has something they like better
I have seen deer in winter time walk past corn to get to pumpkins (used to dump 2 tons or so at a time of unsold ones as they would go bad, in totes!)

one farm I helped manage, grew potato's(actually sold to Wise potato chop company)
first yr we planted then and harvested them we found out
the buyer ONLY took potato's of one size, anything larger or smaller they refused
so, used to get about 50+ ton of potato's at harvest time they refused, and would dump them in the back of the property
deer would pick at them now and then, but mostly wouldn;t go near em, same with bear's and other critters

we were rather disappointed and worried, as , as time went by, they all started to turn black and get pretty darn funky in smelling really bad
come about the following May/June, the smell got crazy nasty, and we were debating digging a hole and burying them
BUT when they got SO ripe in funk smelling, the bears started showing up in large numbers, some times see 6-8 of them at a time on the piles>
had some HUIGE bears on that farm that fall! LOL

next planting, we had a buyer lined up to take the one the other buyer didn;t want

SO< as for deer eating potato's

MY experience is NOT really, and this farm was over run with deer, seeing a 100+ at a time in fields was normal!

but again, some place else, maybe deer do leat em,
I know they eat em when there growing, more the plant than the potato though!

and by early July, the whole pile was GONE< from the bears!

Oldtimr

The potato farmers were always complaining and shooting deer for crop damage because they dug hem out of the ground to ea them.

mrbb

sorry to say this as I am friends with a lot of farmers
many are a little over zealous on shooting deer and things that eat there crops! and meant to be as nice as possible here!

SO?? I do think most farmers will complain about deer eating anything they plant and will shoot em for it, every bite a critter takes is money out of there pocket, so, in a way cannot blame em
but at same time, when you plant things, critters will eat em, cannot help themselves!
farmers would be glad if there were NO deer, and well hunters, ant lots< and the Game dept's in the middle of the battle , trying to find a happy medium!
!

Oldtimr

Sorry, I saw the results of what the deer did and I am not in the habit of making things up,.

mrbb

didn't say you were
I also said, different places deer eat different things

I planted 50 acres of potato's for several yrs,(20 yrs of rotating between potato's corn, and beans) and had very few deer eating potato's, even when picked and places in piles in a VERY high deer density area ) so, different places can have different results!
still doesn't change the fact some farmers have a stronger dis like of deer than others either as I said!

I known many that carried a rifle in cab of tractor to shoot em , GUT shots , so they didn;t have to deal with the deer and they would run off and die else where!
and sure your not new to knowing this either !
Just saying, not trying to pick a fight!

Oldtimr

There certainly are farmers that do that, not so much anymore. The place I was talking about is at the base of the Blue mountain where there are a lot of potato fields and there were also lots of deer as well. They did a lot of damage. Potatoes did not sell for what they sell for today and the deer cost them a lot of money.