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Deer Breeding Grows Economy in Rural America

Many economists and industry experts believe the cervid, aka deer breeding, industry is the fastest growing industry in rural America, and today Texas leads the nation with more than 1,000 breeding operations, according to a recently released study by Texas A&M University.

The comprehensive study “The Economic Impact of the Texas Deer Breeding Industry,” authored by the Agricultural and Food Policy Center (AFPC) at Texas A&M University, illustrated the economic magnitude of the cervid industry and highlighted deer breeding as a major contributor to the vitality of rural areas.

While the study reports deer breeding generates more than $650 million dollars annually for the Texas economy, the research revealed that the industry has an even far greater impact across the country. Nationwide, the cervid farming has a direct economic impact of $893.5 million dollars. When incorporating the indirect impact of the industry — for example, a farm’s expenditures on feed, veterinary supplies, fuel and other purchases — the total economic impact of the industry jumps to $2.3 billion.

The number of hunters served by the deer breeding market continues to grow as well. Estimating the impact of hunting dollars spent, with hunters as the consumer of cervid farming products, an additional $757 million is generated by the deer breeding industry. Thus, the total impact of the industry, combining the farming and hunting components, is estimated to be more than $3 billion annually.

“The deer breeding industry is a growing and vital industry in the Texas and U.S. economies, particularly in the rural communities,” says Karl Kinsel, executive director of the Texas Deer Association. “Over the years, traditional revenue sources have shifted away from the small communities, but many rural economies are now benefiting from the growth in the deer breeding industry and we are pleased that deer breeding is now creating and supporting thousands of new jobs across the state.”

The term ‘cervid’ refers to any one of the various members of the cervidae family, which includes members such as as whitetail deer, mule deer, elk, fallow, reindeer, axis, sika and red deer among others.

Like any industry, the deer breeding industry involves the production and consumption of products and the industry is currently centered on the whitetail deer. The production side of the industry is comprised of deer breeding facilities whereas the consumption side is represented by other breeders and trophy hunting preserves, or game ranches. Producers market breeding stock to other breeders and stocker deer to game ranches. With hunting as the end market the industry serves, producers selectively breed deer in an attempt to attain consistent genetics to produce trophy whitetail.

According to more than 2,000 industry participants, many find that deer breeding provides an opportunity to turn a greater profit on a relatively small amount of acreage than traditional farming or ranching enterprises.

Together, these results highlight the fact that the cervid industry continues to be an important and vital contributor to the rural economies across North America. The industry provides the economic activity that supports 29,199 jobs in the U.S. economy alone, most of which are located in small communities throughout the nation. If this industry were to disappear, these jobs would be lost with little or no hope of being replaced by traditional revenue sources.

With 7,000 operations and 2,000 hunting preserves, the cervid farming industry has established presence across the nation and the industry continues to be a vital contributor to the rural economies of the United States.