Rogan Gibson, Extension Agronomy Agent
There are many problems farmers are facing when it comes to growing a crop. If you asked every farmer in the Allendale/Hampton counties, “What is the number one problem you are experiencing every year?”. The answer would be deer damage, which is getting worse yearly. Some farmers in the area have acres that never make it to harvest because the deer has wholly eaten their crop until there is nothing left but bare ground.
Clemson Extensions Wildlife Specialist Dr. Corey Heaton has been working on a statewide deer damage study to see how much yield we are losing. The study is being conducted in 40 cotton fields across the state. Agronomy Agent Rogan Gibson monitors five locations in this study in the cotton crop across Allendale and Hampton counties. In May, as soon as the cotton plants started to emerge, four cages were placed 200 ft apart in each of the five locations. A check plot will be used between each cage to compare yields at harvest time. All of the cages were placed at least 30 rows from the field’s edge so that we wouldn’t be collecting data from the worst areas.
At harvest, each plot will be hand-harvested and weighed to calculate the yield difference between areas the deer can’t forage on and areas they can. There are visible differences in most locations across the two counties at this point of the growing season, as shown in the picture.
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