White-tailed deer commercial production in the US

White-tailed deer farming has become an established and growing industry over the past two decades. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are a species of wild ruminant commonly found in much of North America and a member of the Cervidae family, which includes deer, caribou, elk, and moose. White-tailed deer have long been prized by hunters for their antlers, meat, and hides. There are 13 to 14 million hunting licenses sold annually in the United States, with between 900,000 and one million sold in Pennsylvania alone. In recent years, the farming of white-tailed deer has become a successful commercial venture in the United States, with total of more than 4,000 operations generating sales of almost $44 million reported in the 2012 Census of Agriculture. These same statistics show that there were 3,205 white-tailed deer worth $5.7 million sold by Pennsylvania's 217 commercial deer farms in 2012. Although deer farms can be found across the entire United States, over 60 percent ...