(Area) 57,000 bucks were harvested along with 52,000 does for a season total of 109,000.
Harvest numbers have been steady over the last four years between 100,000 and 109,000. Bryan Hayes with the Iowa DNR says the population is stable and the DNR is in a heard maintenance mode. “109,000 deer harvested this year, that’s up from last year. In 2019 the harvest was reported at 100,000, in 2018 we were at 108,00 and in 2017 it was 106,000.”
The deer harvest reached a peak about a dozen years ago at around 150,000. “That harvest reporting system that we have requires it’s a really valuable tool to allow the Iowa DNR to manage the deer herd on a county by county basis. We didn’t always have that, so the way we manage the deer herd has really changed.”
