Personally, I’d like to say that I’m excited about the opportunity for the Minnesota Deer Farmers Association to have our day in court, to hopefully amend or change the new rules and regulations being forced upon us from the 2023 legislative session. A preliminary injunction (essentially a lawsuit of an emergency nature) filed last December by 30 Minnesota deer farmers who came together to file it, is being considered in a hearing July 10th at the Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota. If the judge rules in our favor, we may have a chance to prolong or amend these regulations and get back to deer farming as we know it. However, even if our preliminary injunction is denied, our focus will shift to appealing in the Circuit 8 Court in St. Paul Minnesota, where our case will be heard by primarily conservative judges. We are standing together in the hopes of a favorable outcome.

We appreciate everyone from every state who supported our annual event and fundraiser March 2nd in Austin, Minnesota. While attendance may have been down, our fundraising efforts were tremendous. Money raised will be used to help pay our lobbyists and for our lawsuit. We can’t thank everyone enough who contributed and continue to support us. We may need to have another fundraiser here in the very near future, so please stay tuned. We are also very grateful to be represented by the law firm of Mohrman, Kaardal & Erickson, P.A. Government Litigation Attorneys in our battle to maintain our farms and our livelihoods. Let’s keep our chin up and stay motivated! 

Scott Fier

507-829-3151

fierscott@gmail.com

CDC UPDATE:  Deer Meat Didn't Cause Hunters' Deaths Story by Mike Snider, USA TODAY Concerns about chronic wasting disease have heightened after a case report surfaced of two hunters who developed neurological disorders and died after eating venison from a population of deer that may have been infected with "zombie deer disease." The report of the two hunters who died in 2022, presented in early April at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, did not prove the transmission of chronic wasting disease (CWD) from deer to humans, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio researchers wrote. However, the researchers wrote, the case "emphasizes the need for further investigation into the potential risks of consuming CWD-infected deer and its implications for public health." There have been no cases of CWD in people reported to date, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But past studies raised concerns that CWD could "pose a risk to people," the CDC has said, suggesting "it is important to prevent human exposures to CWD." Here's what to know about the hunters' deaths and the CDC's response to the report. CDC: Deer meat did not lead to hunters' illnesses, death About the 2022 report, the agency agreed with the researchers "that there is a need for careful investigation of chronic wasting disease (CWD) as a potential risk to people's’ health," CDC epidemiologist Ryan Maddox said in a statement to USA TODAY. But the CDC reviewed the 2022 cases and considered the two men's deaths as "part of the normal number of cases of CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) we see in the U.S.," he said. The men died after developing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which like CWD is a prion disease, a class of fatal neurological disorders, which can affect humans and animals, and usually progress rapidly and are always fatal. In prion diseases, certain proteins in the brain begin to fold abnormally, causing brain damage and other symptoms, the CDC says. "A history of hunting and/or eating venison does not mean that someone got CJD that way," Maddox said. "Many Americans hunt and even more eat venison. Some will develop sporadic CJD by chance and others will not."

Click Here for Full Article

NADR is excited to roll out the all-new GMS Web App. This new GMS product offers the deer breeder/farmer the latest in technology and data capturing from the NADR database. GMS clients will be able to access their data via any platform, using any device. The following features are just a few of the many tools included in GMS! 

Herd Inventory - Track all aspects of the herd, including tags, names, state id, birth weight, sires, dams, etc. Display unlimited pictures of each animal. Record medications for each animal.

DNA Submittal & Retrieval - A few clicks, and the paperwork is ready to go via online submittal. When the specimen has been processed, retrieve the lineage and DNA information back into GMS.

GEBV/Codons - Receive and store GEBV score and Codon values from NADR for each animal. 

Lineage/Pedigree -The fully interactive lineage screen displays lineage and pictures for each animal. Optionally, you can display the GEBV score. 

Doe Line - Customizable field for each animal to record anchor doe detail to display on reports or grouping. 

Pen and Group Management - Create and assign as many pens or groups as desired. Pen and group detail included in inventory reports allows for sorting and reviewing animals by pen or group.

Designed for All Species - NADR has spent countless hours with people in the industry to develop a program that will work for all Cervid species as well as Exotics.

More to Come! – We will be rolling out more features in the coming year such as Dream Deer, Animal Transfers, Customizable Reporting, Email Notification of updates.

It will be easy to sign up and transfer your data. 

An email and link will be sent to view a demo of the GMS Web App and discuss your data.

For existing customers, we will provide instructions for locating and uploading the GMS database backup file.

NADR staff will then do all the work to get you up and running.

The fight at the capitol is still ongoing. The original nightmare of a bill in the senate has been tempered down quite substantially from its original form. We are continuing to fight for our farms and we are gaining support from some key Democrats. 

The attached link is from the senate ag committee hearing on Monday the 17th. With new science such as genetic resistance, and the damaging effects of the bill being discussed. We still have a long ways to go but we will continue to fight.

https://mnsenate.granicus.com/player/clip/11363?view_id=1&redirect=true&h=624fb5f65684ae346472336da5a09eec

In the video, the Chairman, Senator Putnam, is one of the Democrats that is listening to us. He has setup a meeting with Scott Fier, Brenda Hartkopf (from the elk breeders), as well as the DNR, the author of the bill, and our lobbyist to refine the bill and get everyone to the same table.

Meetings are taking place and many times, such as Monday's hearing, are short notice. We have a meeting setup for next week with the new DNR cervid program coordinator as a meet and greet with him, to get to know him and how he plans to run the DNR's captive cervid program.

Also, If anyone is willing to work with Dr. Scott Wells from the U of M by allowing him to place trail cameras around your perimeter fence, to study what animals are crossing through the fence, ie. raccoons, skunks, fox ect. Please contact Mark Volk at 320-232-3352 and he will get you in touch with Dr. Wells. We as a board support his study and wish to get him more help. So far, Dr. Wells has had cameras on 4 farms. One in WI, and the farms of three of our directors, Mark Volk, Ken Williams, and Deb Holthaus.

If you have any questions, feel free to respond to this email or contact one of our board members and we will answer any questions you may have.

MDFA Board of Directors

Protecting Cervid Operations from CWD

by Scott Wells

Dept of Veterinary Population Medicine University of Minnesota

Scott Wells Flyer.pdf

Click here to link to video!

Did we find a cure for CWD? Hey everyone, here is an interview with Greg Flees of Wilderness Whitetails. The genetic resistance program that he has implemented with his whitetail deer looks very promising and may be the answer in beating the disease of CWD!

I would like to start off by saying thank you to Iowa for being a part of our 1^st Annual MN/IA Fundraising Banquet. Overall, we had our best banquet yet! Please share any thoughts or concerns on how we could make the banquet even more successful. A HUGE thank you to all the donors, sponsors and everyone that had a role in helping. We appreciate the support!!

I hope everyone has been receiving updates that have been sent out since the banquet. We will keep doing our best to continue getting information to our members. We are in the middle of session at the time of this letter and in my opinion, I think we are sitting in about as good of a position we can considering everything that gets thrown at us. I understand not everything is in our favor, but we will continue the fight and use the resources we have available to us. We are in this together so let’s work together! Please continue to reach out to your legislators to keep them abreast with your thoughts and concerns.

Feel free to reach out to myself or any of the board members if you have any questions or concerns.

I wish you all the best of luck with your new crop of fawns and your bucks growing antler!

Scott Fier- President MDFA

507-829-3151

fierscott@gmail.com