I continue to believe the problem is this is a big state and it has diverse habitat. In the south there are plenty of woods and places for deer to go and avoid humans. Those counties are doing very well with deer numbers.

The northern part of the state is a different story. When corn prices went up a lot of the deer habitat was bulldozed to create more tillable land. That's why many of those counties have a reduced herd. Hopefully with corn prices down farmers will put their land into CRP and other programs. Habitat is as important a factor as hunter harvest in my opinion.