By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — Last week, a judge ruled in favor of a continued ban on deer baiting in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.

Ingham County Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk ruled that the state had authority to issue the emergency rule after its first case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) was detected in a captive deer on a Kent County farm in August.

A group of opponents filed the lawsuit Sept. 23 in Ingham County Circuit Court against the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), seeking to lift the ban in time for this year’s deer hunting season in Michigan. Bow hunting season is under way, and firearm season opens Nov. 15.

The lawsuit was filed by farmers and store owners who sued because they are suffering financial hardships due to the ban. Before the ban, baiting deer was legal as of Oct. 1 each year and continuing through the end of deer season. Hunters would flock to roadside stands and farms to purchase bait – beets, carrots, corn, apples and other produce.

The ban on deer baiting is estimated to cost farmers and store owners several million dollars in lost revenue.

Gerald Malburg of Hart was one of the supporters of the petition. He has been selling carrots, sugar beets and corn for deer bait for about 10 years. This year he stands to lose his entire sugar beet crop income, as well as income from his cull carrots to the baiting ban – more than 160 acres of sugar beets at a production cost of $550-$600 per acre is a hefty sum to lose.

Too, Malburg no longer has a market for his cull carrots, which he estimates to be about 40 percent of his crop. He said he likely will dump them back in the fields. Since the court upheld the ban on deer baiting, Malburg said he is unsure if the group will file an appeal.

“We are meeting to try to determine what we want to do,” he said. “We have talked about filing an appeal.”

However, he isn’t sure he wants to continue with an appeal this year. “It wouldn’t matter for this year’s crops,” he said, adding that if the ban were overturned, it is too late to recoup the losses already being realized on deer feed this fall.

Instead, Malburg said he is working with his local Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service Office to certify his acreage and tonnage for his carrot and sugar beet crops.

“We want to be prepared in case somewhere down the line the state reimburses us for losses due to the ban,” he said. “We need to have some record of our yields.”

“We have had some interest in our beets for animal feed, but no sales yet,” he added. “These crops were planted in April or May and are ready to harvest. We have all the cost into it. It’s like working for half a year and going to get your paycheck, and it’s not there.”

DNR spokeswoman Mary Dettloff said the ruling to uphold the ban makes sense. “We are very pleased with the judge’s decision,” she said. “We felt all along that we were doing the right and necessary thing to protect the deer herd in Michigan.” The state adopted a rule in 2002 that called for an immediate prohibition on feeding if CWD were detected in either peninsula or within 50 miles of the state line.