The problem:

We have seen over the years an overpopulation of deer in Robertson County. This issue can be noticed by number of deer related car accidents, the impact of crop yields due to deer destruction, and also by driving down the road and seeing a whole herd around each bend. This issues stems further then the boundaries of Robertson County. Surrounding counties are also seeing the impact the deer population has on farmers, landowners, and drivers. There is also an issue of lack of food for many families here in the county.  

The educational program response:

Volunteers were able to learn how to properly process a deer once it is harvested and how to safely handle the meat once it is off of the carcass. Community members who received the ground venison, were given Cook Wild Kentucky recipe cards for ground venison and also a 2024 SNAP-Ed Calendar. 

The participants/target audience:

Our target audience is people who are avid hunters or landowners that are wanting to thin the deer population on their property. We expanded the program this year to any hunters in the surrounding counties (Bracken, Mason, Fleming, Nicholas, Harrison) that wanted to participate. 

Other partners (if applicable):

• Robertson County School/Ag Department - Provided a location for the program and a dumpster for disposal of the carcasses. 
• Kern Food Distributor - Provided a refrigerator truck for the program to store the venison on as we processed it. They also delivered the venison to the UK Meats Lab and then picked it up once it was ready.
• UK Meats Lab - Ground the venison that we received and put it in one pound packages. 
• KY Hunter for the Hungry - Gave funds for the number of deer we received to help with supplies. 
• Robertson County Farm Bureau & Soil Conservation - Sponsored Door Prizes 
• Martin's Taxidermy - Sponsored Door Prizes 
• Robertson County FYRSC - Distributed the ground venison to families in need. 
• Robertson County Licking Valley CAP - Distributed the ground venison to senior citizens and low income households.  

Program impact or participant response:

The Robertson County Deer Harvest took place the second weekend of modern gun season in November 2023. Robertson County residents as well as residents from surrounding counties were encouraged to harvest a doe or buck and donate the carcass. The donated deer were brought to the Robertson County Ag Barn, where volunteers worked on processing and cleaning the meat before bagging it up and put on the refrigerator truck. Each deer had to be legally harvested; to ensure that we kept record of their validation numbers and also weighed the carcass when it was brought to the barn. 

Local businesses and organizations donated funds and other items to serve as door prizes. Each person that donated a deer was put into the drawing and each volunteer was put into the drawing. Some of the door prizes included a $500 gift card, a free shoulder mount certificate, deer corn, a deer blind, and a tree stand. It takes both the hunters and volunteers to make this program a success, therefore they are all recognized. Over the weekend, there were 46 deer that were donated from Robertson, Bracken, Mason, and Fleming Counites. That beat our prior record of 33 deer donated the very first year we did the program. The hunters were all very excited to be contributing and were very appreciative for us doing the program. 

Once the meat was taken to UK Meats Lab and ground up, it was brought back to the county were I coordinated with FYRSC and Licking Valley CAP to reach out to families and community members that were in need of the ground venison. There was approximately 850 pounds that we ended up with to pass out. We organized a pick up day where over 50 families and community members were given a bag of ground venison and then 10 Cook Wild Kentucky Recipe Cards with a 2024 SNAP-Ed Calendar. Each person was very appreciative and thanked us for our kindness. Handing out around 500 pounds to the Robertson County Citizens was very rewarding, but it also meant that the remainder 350 pounds needed to go somewhere. We took the remaining venison to church food banks in the surrounding counties so that they too could benefit from our program.