Sep’s Farms has under cultivation around 300 acres between East Marion and Orient. Electric fencing protects just 80 acres. We germinate from seed over 45 different vegetables and fruits. None on our planting list is excluded from the nightly browsing done by deer. They will eat everything. One can walk up the fields as early as 7 pm, the sun still high in the sky, and spot six yearling deer helping themselves to the plot of peas. After the tomatoes are set in the ground by hand after a lengthy stay in the heated greenhouse as seedlings, the deer nip off each tender plant down entire rows. The hoof prints piercing the row coverings soon weeds have grown in the hoof holes and overtaken the plants. Deer will wander great distances to feed, and on their muddy cloven hooves they carry the bacteria from one field to another annulling the careful choices of crop rotation and juxtaposition of crop varieties. In fact, more is lost to deer feeding on our farm than to climatic factors. Deer consume a full 25% of seedlings.

To combat these losses we have relied on a number of strategies including hunting during the archery and shotgun season. Many of our neighbors oppose hunting, yet they are unaware of the impact their new homes have on the deer. The loss of habitat and natural browsing areas is the price to the deer and the farmer -- who now supplies the balance of nutrients once supplied by the woodlot. Another method of deer control is to wake up in the middle of each night to patrol the fields, yet at the sight of the truck the herd breaks for the woods and house lots only to return an hour later to continue feeding. The third method, which has moderate success, is the construction of electric fencing around each field. This entails the purchase of rope with metal strands woven into it. For a 30-acre field the length of rope needed to provide decent coverage is four miles. A constant process of cutting down weeds ensues so the fence does not short out and lose efficacy. Before we sell a single bunch of radish or harvest a tomato, the investment in electric fence reaches $20,000 dollars. Still finding their way around the fence each night are deer that have figured out the trick to jumping over it or are small enough to dart through. We have researched more permanent fencing constructed of wooden posts and woven steel wire. Its drawback is cost as an initial investment. Farmers must push all their bills off until the harvest brings income. When we consider an investment we count on every plant we press firmly into the earth.

This season someone came to the farm to discuss deer hunting in the area. She was against hunting. My grandmother explained our problems with the deer. The woman asked: “Then why do you even bother farming?” The question would sound asinine to some of the people I have come in contact with around the world, particularly to those people in the central valleys of the Dominican Republic and the southern, coastal regions of Haiti. It would also have sounded strange to people on this continent prior to refrigerated freight. I have learned that the only strong community is one that can feed itself. We wish for this community what we wish for ourselves and always have since the times of immigration…to have food, each other, and a connection to the land that gives us a sense of place, identity and the chance to feel our lives bear a purpose. We ask for the community’s support in safely managing the deer population to a level sustainable by our local forests