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Feast or famine: It’s pumpkins aplenty for some farmers, deer destruction for others

By Jon Andreassi, For The Greene County Messenger 3 min read
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news@greenecountymessenger.com

The pumpkins and apples at Simmons Farm in Peters Township are plentiful this year.

In fact, owner Scott Simmons said it’s “one of the nicest crops we’ve had in years.

“We had a very dry spring, a fairly dry summer and that makes for a decent crop of pumpkins for us,” Simmons said.

Those who want to pick their Halloween pumpkins and stroll through the apple orchards will have plenty of options available to them at Simmons Farm.

However, on the other side of the Monongahela River, farmers are struggling to contend with a large deer population that has destroyed their crops.

“Unfortunately, we’ve lost almost our entire crop to deer. The deer population is exploding, and it has been catastrophic,” said Mark Duda, owner of Duda’s Farm in Brownsville.

Duda’s Farm will continue its 30-year tradition of offering hayrides out to a pumpkin patch, but not one with pumpkins from the farm.

Most of the pumpkins have been coming on tractor-trailer loads from Ohio, which is not how Duda is used to things going in the fall.

“This is the first time we’ve had to buy pumpkins in over five years. This year it is substantially worse,” Duda said.

According to Duda, the deer also have an affinity for sweet corn. He knows other farmers who are struggling with the deer and worries about the local food supply.

“I’ve never seen anything this bad with the deer in my life,” Duda said. “There were like 60 to 80 deer in the field the other day.”

Duda has been able to source some pumpkins locally. Friday morning, he was visited by Joel Milowicki, who owns JP’s Farmers Market in Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County.

Milowicki agreed that the deer population is a major issue for farmers, and has plans to protect his crops in the future.

“We’re going to build a 10-foot high fence around at least 100 acres,” Milowicki said

Though the farm took a hit from deer, Milowicki said they are not hurting for pumpkins.

“I have an abnormally large pumpkin crop this year. (Deer) have probably taken a third of what I had,” Milowicki said. “I planted so many.”

Milowicki added that it is not as though deer eat entire pumpkins, but they do bite holes into them, which causes them to rot. “It basically makes them unmarketable and unsellable that way,” Milowicki said.

JP’s Farmer’s Market has apple trees, and Milowicki takes extra precaution to protect them from deer.

“We cage all our young trees with woven wire,” Milowicki said.

While Milowicki is investing his own money to fence off his farm, he hopes the government will start offering more assistance to farmers who need to protect their crops from deer. Duda agrees.

“We’ve been talking to the Game Commission and any politician we can to fix this issue,” Duda said.

Milowicki said that these problems are not just for farmers, and that the issue works its way down to consumers.

“Sometimes those high prices they’re paying in the market, it’s because of deer damage,” Milowicki said. “Those deer are costing them on their insurance policies for their cars, and costing them at the grocery store and farm market as well.”

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