Estimation of Deer Damage to Soybean Production in Mississippi: A Spatial and Temporal Context

Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) are one of Mississippi’s most profitable agricultural crops. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginiaus) damage soybean every year due to the plant’s high palatability, digestibility and nutritional content. I estimated the amount of damage (browsing and loss of yield) caused by deer within 5 soybean fields in eastern Mississippi and compared damage to the number of deer using each field during the 2012 and 2013 growing seasons. I assessed the effectiveness of the chemical repellent Hinder on soybean. While deer did affect soybean height, soybean yield remained unaffected during both years of my study. Given the results of this study, the perception of deer damage may be greater than the physical damage and other environmental factors such as field margin effects may be the reason for spatial variations in soybean yield throughout fields. Hinder also improved soybean height and decreased deer damage but soybean yield remained unchanged