White-Tailed Deer
Crop Predation Research
White-tailed deer are a familiar sight, but for growers across the southeast, they can be a costly problem. Deer are a widely recognized agricultural pest, and deer browsing is a recurring source of yield loss. Economic impacts can vary widely depending on location and production scale. Currently, Florida has no economic estimates of deer damage, and patterns such as browsing frequency, intensity, and crop preference aren’t known. Our project focuses on alleviating the issue of white-tailed deer crop damage for Florida growers through both research and extension. Our research aims to fill this gap and give Florida growers reliable solutions to a persistent problem.
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Our primary goal is to provide growers with practical, research based strategies to minimize crop damage while also weighing economic tradeoffs.
We need your help
Your financial support is crucial to expand our research on deterrents and crop varieties. By contributing to our project, you’re helping us mitigate wildlife/agriculture conflicts.
We also want to hear from Florida growers, and welcome your ideas on where to focus our efforts. Thanks to our network of extension agents, we stay connected with growers and their needs, ensuring your input shapes the work that we do.
Our Research
In 2024 and 2025, we began assessing crop loss by conducting initial studies to quantify peanut and cotton damage from deer in the panhandle region. This fall, we will complete data collection and provide economic estimates of yield loss.
Our next steps are to test the efficacy of different deterrent methods, evaluate palatability of various peanut and cotton varieties, and gather state-wide estimates of deer-related crop losses from Florida growers. These results will allow the development and implementation of targeted and effective management strategies.
