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Deer Farms Experience Rapid Growth in Franklin County (PA) and Beyond

By Jim Hook, PublicOpinionOnline.com

Glenn Dice Jr. makes the deer on his farm feel right at home.

The 39-year-old Chambersburg man has married his love of the outdoors with his knowledge of dairy farming. He doesn't crawl around in camouflage, and he doesn't get up at 4 a.m. to milk. His fences are tall.

Dice is among Pennsylvania's 1,069 certified deer farmers.

Deer and elk farming "is perhaps the fastest growing industry in rural America," according to a 2007 study for the Texas Cooperative Extension. More than three-fourths of the deer and elk farms in Pennsylvania have been established since 1990, according to the Pennsylvania Deer Farmers Association.

Texas and Pennsylvania lead the nation in numbers of "cervid" farms. A cervid is any ruminant animal with cloven hooves, with males characteristically having antlers they shed annually.

With $40 million in annual sales, Pennsylvania's cervid farming is small potatoes compared to Franklin County's $140 million dairy industry.

Read Full Story here.