OFFICIAL 2026 Deer Gun Lottery

[NDSportsman]

No tags for us this year.

A big thank you to NDGF management for the bountiful and thoughtful management approach of our resources over the past decade or so which has resulted in my kids not being able to get a tag.

I know I’m not alone with my appreciation.

Blame commodity prices and ag practices.

 

[Ruttin]

Blame commodity prices and ag practices.

However after the brutal winter of 2023/24 and the NDGF totally fucking up on the tag allotments, i have little faith left in them.

 

[walleyeman_1875]

Blame commodity prices and ag practices.

I blame myself as well. I took full advantage of shooting multiple does every year back in the good old days. Since then, I’ve refused to shoot a doe regardless. Unlikely to have any impact but it can’t hurt increasing the doe population??

For some reason, I decided to vent online.

 

[Davy Crockett]

Looking back , google says there were a lot of people and events to blame.

The early 70s were boom times for farmers, characterized by surging export demands, record crop prices, and high land values. However, this rapid prosperity was precarious, as high inflation and aggressive borrowing in the late 1970s ultimately set the stage for the devastating farm crisis of the 1980s.

Some farmers wanted more , land and more money politicians of his era—used the phrase "fence post to fence post" (or "fencerow to fencerow"), it referred to an agricultural practice of maximizing crop production by clearing every possible inch of land to plant crops, leaving no idle space.

 

[Callem'In]

Did not draw this year with 6 points. It will be bow hunting ND and MN, OTC elk B in Montana. I don't mind giving my money to states that will trade me money for tags.

 

[Davy Crockett]

I don't know what would happen if ND went back to bucks only for a year again ? Probably not much would change since it's mostly a habitat thing.

 

[frozen4sioux]

No dice with 7 points.
Only 79k applied?
That seems super low, recruitment issues that will stem from the past decade will take generations to reverse and that holding out the small possibility that its even possible to turn that around.

 

[NDSportsman]

Looking back , google says there were a lot of people and events to blame.

The early 70s were boom times for farmers, characterized by surging export demands, record crop prices, and high land values. However, this rapid prosperity was precarious, as high inflation and aggressive borrowing in the late 1970s ultimately set the stage for the devastating farm crisis of the 1980s.

Some farmers wanted more , land and more money politicians of his era—used the phrase "fence post to fence post" (or "fencerow to fencerow"), it referred to an agricultural practice of maximizing crop production by clearing every possible inch of land to plant crops, leaving no idle space.

We never seem to learn, same thing happened after soil bank, crp and it's happening now again. Oh well....

 

[Obi-Wan]

I am confused I just received this from the game and fish

 

[Duckslayer100]

Recall the REAL reason for CRP: It was to reduce the number of tillable acres by paying farmers to leave non- or low-productive acres out of production, and thus decreasing the overall amount of commodities. Lower commodities drove up price. That's supply-and-demand Economics 101.

When prices surged, what, 15 years ago-ish? Maybe it was 20. Anyway, Farm Bill came up and they torched CRP. Every bill since they've dropped the CRP cap. That meant more land in productiong, which when paired with increasing efficiencies of modern farming, has led to record bushels.

Now they're faced with the highest input prices in decades, and for like the third or fourth year in a row, we're hearing how farmers can't even afford to plant a crop as they're losing money before it's even harvested.

So a thinking person would say, you know what, we should find a way to drive up commodity prices so they make more. Gosh, I wish we had a mechanism to do such a thing. Hmmm...

 

[ndlongshot]

No tags for us this year.

A big thank you to NDGF management for the bountiful and thoughtful management approach of our resources over the past decade or so which has resulted in my kids not being able to get a tag.

I know I’m not alone with my appreciation.

Game and fish can't magically mandate more habitat.

 

[8andcounting]

Game and fish can't magically mandate more habitat.

Can quit issuing doe tags

 

[7mmMag]

Didn't draw with 8 points

 

[ndlongshot]

Can quit issuing doe tags

No arguments there.

 

[Davy Crockett]

It's hard to keep everyone happy , I remember catching flack when I had the farm in CRP. The opposition said your making money off us taxpayers for doing nothing AKA welfare . Farmers told me I was ruining the land. I eventually broke it up and put it back into production , then the wetland reserve program came along and the forest land qualified so I enrolled in that program incase I died young so I knew the land wouldn't be developed or cleared for farming or pastured . I'm glad I did my part , I wish more people would have. The only change I see nowadays is a lot of farmers dislike deer because they eat grain and cost them money , I always left some swaths for deer and we had deer year around, now that it's rented there is nothing but straw and dirt in the fall and the deer have started migrating to the prairie. I still think there is a chance for middle ground but it still involves farmers getting paid tax payer money (for doing nothing). Conservation is neat , This morning we watched a doe and twins walk through the yard and into the trees and the doe put them down for a nap and she came back out and walked around the yard .