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Wildlife Damage To Agricultural Crops In Pennsylvania: The Farmers’ Perspective, Margaret C. Brittingham, Walter M. Tzilkowski, James M. Zeidler, Matthew J. Lovallo

Eighth Eastern Wildlife Damage Management Conference (1997)

Agricultural damage by wildlife is a major concern for both agricultural and wildlife agencies at the state and federal level. Our objective was to estimate wildlife damage to agricultural crops on a statewide basis. We sent questionnaires to 4,958 farmers and 1,003 were returned after 2 mailings. Twenty-five percent of farmers responding to our survey rated the level of wildlife damage to their crops as severe or very severe, 46% as moderate, and 29% had none or very little. Mean levels of crop loss to wildlife ranged from 6% for wheat to 10% for corn grain, and white-tailed deer ( …