Please dont take what i am about to say wrong. But with all due respect to you the days of it being "our deer herd" are long over. The private land owners along with the out of state land hoarders are the ones who now own the deer herds with the sole expressed interest in making large amounts of money off those deer herds. I with the inclusion of eveyone on this board knows this is true and so does the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife. The Department of Fish & Wildlife would never admit it (even under the most dire circumstances they wouldnt admit it) and they are desperately hoping not many people open their eyes to the fact of it being how it is. The truth is we are paying state employed biologists to keep track of privately owned deer herds on privately owned land that 99% of us will never get to hunt much less take a shot at them. And if thats not crooked i dont know what would constitute being crooked.

With so many private deer herds actively managed and looked after by multi-millionaire landowners who are in the business of making money off those deer there is little danger of the state wide deer population being compromised to the point that their numbers will become endangered much less being hunted to extinction. So why do we have state employed conservation officers and biologists when there are so many deer hunting business owners constantly patroling their properties and monitoring the numbers and the quality of these privately owned deer herds.
How can a poacher stand a chance against one of these land owners following them with a GPS and a cell phone connected to the state police?

The survey results were probably not released to the public because it would have caused a huge stink and ill tell you why it might have possibly caused a stink.
With all the farmers who own a thousand acres and are inviting out of staters in to hunt. Do you honestly think these farmers are going to the courthouse and registering as a "hunting guide business"?
Do you think they are requiring their "paid guests" to use a legitimate and traceable form of payment and to also purchase a state hunting license and all applicable permits?
Do you honestly think the number of deer being havested is reported in a honest and accurate manner?

These individuals claim it is cheaper to sell guided hunts than to risk planting a crop and losing it to drought. Dont think for one minute that behind all the no tresspassing signs and constant 24 hour trail cam protection that a number of them are not secretly planting a "crop" and making 100% tax free money off it.