LITTLE ROCK — Marcus Gunter usually buys about 160 bags of “deer corn” each summer to prepare for hunting season in Arkansas.
Not this year. Not at today’s prices, said Gunter, president of the Lamartine Deer Camp in Nevada County in southwest Arkansas.
“I’ve just kind of cut back on the numbers,” Gunter said. “We’re all cutting back.”
The extreme drought in the Midwest caused a diminished supply of corn, which has led to a spike in prices for all sorts of retail products, including deer corn.
That means hunters in the state and across the country are reaching deeper into their pockets to buy the corn, used to lure deer into shooting range.
In most cases, deer corn is regular field corn but packaged specifically for hunters. There’s typically a picture of a deer on the bag with hunting motifs such as cross hairs.
Saturday was opening day of the archery deer season in Arkansas. Muzzleloader season begins Oct. 20, followed by the modern gun season on Nov. 10.
Last year, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission estimated that 300,000 hunters participated in the opening of modern gun season.
Deer corn is one of the array of products that make hunting big business in the United States. According to Southwick Associates, an outdoors-related market research firm, Americans spend $22 billion each year on huntingrelated products.
“The vast majority of hunting expenditures in any given year are directed towards hunting deer, particularly whitetails,” according to the firm, which estimates annual deer-hunting expenditures at about $18.2 billion.
Hunters either fill automatic feeders that spread the corn near their stands or they spread it on the day of the hunt. The product is marketed under brands such as Remington and Sportsman’s Choice.
A standard 40-pound bag of deer corn could be had for $5 to $8 at big-box retailers and feed stores at this time last year, according to hunters.
It’s jumped to $8-$10 at Wal-Mart and Tractor Supply Store, and $11-$14 at Arkansas feed stores and co-ops.
Neighborhood Farm and Ranch Supply in Elkins, just outside Fayetteville, is charging $13.99 for a 50-pound bag of Sportsman’s Choice Record Rack, salesman Wayne Shackleford said.
That’s several dollars more than last year for the premium brand, Shackleford said. The hunters “aren’t happy about it, as you can imagine,” he said.
“They would buy 10 to 15 bags at one time,” he said. “We’re not seeing much of that this year. Now they buy three or four bags, or even one.”
The price for a 50-pound bag of deer corn at Arkansas Associated Farmers Co-op in Conway is $10.95, up from $8 a year ago.
But Kathy Grace, bookkeeper for the co-op, said she hasn’t seen a drop in sales of the corn, supplied by Purina and Wildwood Genetics.
“We’ve been steady busy,” Grace said. “It doesn’t seem to faze them at all. The deer hunters, if they are going to hunt the deer, they are going to pay the price.
“They are diehard,” she said. “They still come and buy it.”
Feed Seed & More in Springdale is also selling 50-pound bags of corn for $10.95, co-owner Kenny Reynolds said.
“Some people have kind of backed off of it but some people have come in and loaded up,” he said.
Mark Hardwick, secretarytreasurer for the Grice Hunting Club in Bradley County in south Arkansas, said he has Nov. 10 circled on his calendar.
He’s never bought a lot of corn but he’ll buy even less this year, said Hardwick, a Little Rock resident.
“This year I’ll buy two or three bags,” he said. “I’ll use it the day of the hunt but as far as buying bags and going out and stocking feeders, at this price I’m not going to.”
Gunter, a Hot Springs resident who has been a member of the Lamartine Deer Camp for 27 years, said he typically fills 20 feeders. This year he’ll only fill 14.
He’s been shopping around since August, “trying to find the cheapest corn I could find.”
“If you find it for $8.50, you’d better go get it,” he said.
Business, Pages 25 on 09/19/2012