Texas deer hunting is big business – and business is booming.

Whether you’re a hunter, breeder or landowner – or someone whose business caters to hunters during the fall and winter – you’re part of a multi-billion-dollar industry that continues helping rack up big bucks for the state and local economies.

While the Lone Star State offers plenty of distinctive hunting opportunities, deer hunting is and always will be No. 1 in terms of hunter participation and spending. It’s easy to see why: More than 1.2 million hunting licenses have been sold in each of the past five years, according to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department data. More than half of those licenses are used by those pursuing deer, with the average standing at more than 600,000 hunters annually. In seasons with good range conditions and ample hunting opportunities, the figure has approached 700,000, according to TPWD.

The sheer amount of folks going afield for even a few days each year to pursue whitetails in Texas is astounding, but when you consider that in addition to their rifles and archery gear they’re toting along their wallets and checkbooks, the numbers really get interesting.

Here’s an in-depth look at the economics of white-tailed deer in Texas, specifically discussing the annual impact of deer hunting and deer breeding.

Deer Hunting in Texas

Alan Cain, whitetail program leader for TPWD, offered a glimpse into just how large the whitetail figure is in the Lone Star State. Cain, who talks deer roughly 24/7/365 with everyone with a vested interest both inside Texas and outside its borders, also noted that the future remains bright for deer hunting across the board.

That means the participation and spending trends are only going to continue.

“Our deer population estimate statewide was about 4 million in 2017 and that figure has been growing slightly every year. The trend is going up and has been going up for a while,” he said. “Places like the Hill Country obviously have a pile of deer, but you’re also seeing the population start to grow in that Blackland Prairie range, that I-35 corridor area, where traditionally there hasn’t been a lot of deer. We’re also starting to see signs of deer and populations growing where we’ve got this fragmented habitat. The deer have been surviving in there and the hunting pressure has been relatively light. In fact, in some of these areas east of I-35 we’re getting complaints from farmers about deer depredation, which is a healthy indicator that populations are going up.

“You look at the other areas of the state and things are looking good, as usual. South Texas has a stable population … in the Cross Timbers up in North Texas things are looking well … East Texas has a stable population to slightly growing.”

Cain also noted that in addition to regular hunting season dates and expanding deer populations, the Managed Lands Deer Permit (MLDP) program has continued to balloon in popularity on numerous tracts. MLDP allows landowners more liberal frameworks for harvesting deer in exchange for allowing state biologists and personnel to help manage and to keep records on private tracts in an attempt to better manage the state’s overall population. MLDP participants get more tags and were able to harvest deer from October through the end of February this past season.

TPWD issues more than 300,000 tags annually each year through the MLDP, which began in the mid-1990s and has only continued to expand. More than 10,000 farms and ranches covering about 26 million acres are enrolled, according to TPWD figures.

This past season also saw a change in those reporting procedures, with online options helping to  better serve a burgeoning program.

When discussing the specific impact of hunting in Texas, it’s best to do it by the numbers. Luckily, there is a wealth of reliable data to examine.

The most recent annual economic impact survey from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on outdoor recreation is one of those trusted reports. It shows just how prolific hunters, and their dollars, truly are. Among the notable figures in that survey are:

Hunting-related expenditures in Texas totaled $1.8 billion; trip-related expenses, such as food and lodging, transportation, and other trip expenses, totaled $837 million — 46 percent of total expenditures.

• Expenditures for food and lodging were $332 million and transportation expenditures were $379 million; other trip expenses, such as equipment rental, totaled $126 million for the year; the average trip-related expenditure per hunter was $730.
• Hunters spent $538 million on equipment — 29 percent of all hunting expenditures. Hunting equipment (guns, ammunition, etc.) totaled $344 million and made up 64 percent of all equipment costs; hunters spent $194 million on auxiliary equipment (tents, special hunting clothes, etc.) and special equipment (boats, vans, etc.), accounting for 36 percent of total equipment expenditures for hunting.
• The purchase of other items, such as licenses, permits, and land leasing, and ownership, cost hunters $460 million — 25 percent of all hunting expenditures.

Another older study shows how one specific region can help boost its entire economy. South Texas, long considered the top deer hunting destination in the Lone Star State – if not the entire country – is a lucrative hotbed for a variety of reasons, including both deer hunting and deer breeding. A decade-old study from the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville found that the regional economic impact of South Texas hunting operations alone was nearly $600 million and helped create almost 7,000 hunting-related jobs. Updated figures aren’t currently available but the figure has only risen since.

Another indicator of hunter participation and spending is the Wildlife Restoration Act (Pittman-Robertson) of 1937. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service annually distributes revenue to each state’s wildlife agency through the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration program, with funds coming from excise taxes on the sale of everything from sporting firearms and ammunition to archery equipment. That figure in 2017 coming back to the Lone Star State was more than $35 million for wildlife restoration efforts.

Pittman-Robertson funds allow TPWD’s Wildlife Division to offer many services, including: technical guidance to private landowners who control roughly 95 percent of wildlife habitat in Texas; TPWD surveys and research for development of hunting regulations; operation and management of Wildlife Management Areas; and conducting research and developing techniques for managing wildlife populations and wildlife habitat.

For every dollar spent by the Wildlife Division on approved projects, about 75 cents is returned to the department for wildlife conservation. This amounts to approximately $9 million annually, according to TPWD.

Deer Breeding in Texas

While deer hunting has continued its longstanding tradition that has dated back generations, deer breeding has exploded in popularity over the past two decades. That surging industry has only grown larger by the year during the most recent decade.

A study released in 2017 by the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University outlining the economic impact of deer breeding and hunting operations in the Lone Star State has plenty of notable figures highlighting the thriving industry. Chief among them:

The deer breeding industry has a direct economic impact of $349.4 million annually; when incorporating the indirect impacts of the industry – expenditures on feed, veterinary supplies, fuel and other purchases – the total economic impact of the industry to the state economy is $786.9 million.

• Many breeding operations also have hunting or sell stocker bucks to other hunting operations; the study estimated the impact of hunting dollars spent on the products of deer breeders (with hunters as buyers of the deer breeders’ products) and determined an additional $860 million is generated by the deer breeding industry in Texas.
• The total impact of the industry to the Texas economy, combining the breeding and hunting components, is more than $1.6 billion annually.
• The economic activity of the deer breeding industry supports nearly 17,000 jobs, most of which are in rural areas of the state.
• The number of permitted breeding facilities in Texas expanded from 946 in 2006 to 1,257 in 2016, according to TPWD.

For sake of comparison, the 2007 study on the economic impact of deer breeding and hunting operations on the state’s economy found that breeding operations contributed a total economic impact of $523 million annually with an additional $129 million generated by hunting operations. That combined impact of $652 million annually isn’t even half of what was tallied in the study released last year.

All this funding – both from deer hunting and deer breeding – has a definitive trickle-down effect, helping to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into our local state economy each fall and winter. While that dollar amount includes valuable funds headed to outfitters, mom-and-pop shops and those making a direct living off the hunting industry, the federal taxes generated by the overall industry end up going back into state coffers earmarked for needed resource protections and improvements.

In that aspect, hunting is conservation, with a direct correlation to improving habitat and in some cases access and opportunities.

The focus on deer management in hunting terms also has been an important guide to future success in Texas, something that’s only going to continue to increase.