Estimation of deer damage to soybean production in eastern Mississippi: Perception versus reality: Deer Damage in Soybeans

Soybean (Glycine max) is one of Mississippi's most profitable agricultural crops. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) consume soybeans each year because of the palatability and nutritional content of the plant and may cause economic damage to soybean producers. We estimated the amount of damage (browsing and loss of yield) caused by deer within 5 soybean fields in eastern Mississippi, USA, and compared damage with the number of deer using each field during the 2012 and 2013 growing seasons. Although deer browsing did reduce soybean height, soybean yield was unaffected during both years of our study. Our results suggest that perception of deer damage likely exceeds actual yield loss. Other environmental factors, such as competition from field border vegetation and field margin effects, may better explain spatial variation in soybean yield throughout fields. Soybean growers in the southeastern United States may benefit from targeting investment in deer damage control more efficiently. (C) 2017 The Wildlife Society.