Report
What deer harvest data tells a land buyer
Deer harvest data shows where hunters register deer and how many licenses sell, not how many deer live on one parcel. The 2025 MN, WI and IA numbers, dated.
By Jordan Johnson, Founder, Kedron Co.Updated 8 min read
Deer harvest data tells a land buyer where hunters register deer, how many licenses hunters buy and which way the trend is moving. It does not tell them how many deer live on a given 80 acres. Used that way, the 2025 numbers from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa are good context for a hunting land listing and a poor substitute for the property's own evidence.
2025 deer harvest in MN, WI and IA
| State | Season | Total deer registered | Change from prior season | Licenses sold | Smallest unit reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | 2025 | 186,368 | +9.2% (170,679 in 2024) | 335,711 resident and 14,002 nonresident firearms licenses | Deer permit area |
| Wisconsin | 2025 | 339,481 (as of Jan. 20, 2026) | +6.8% (317,976 in 2024) | 790,044 deer hunting privileges (preliminary, Dec. 2, 2025) | Deer management unit (named by county) |
| Iowa | 2025-26 | 101,919 | +1% | 330,944 licenses (down 3%) | County |
Sources: Minnesota DNR, 2025 Deer Harvest Report, completed March 2026. Wisconsin all-season totals from the DNR as reported by Outdoor News (March 2, 2026); the change is a Kedron calculation. Wisconsin DNR gun season release, Dec. 2, 2025. Iowa DNR, White-tailed Deer Program Report, 2025-2026 season.
A few details behind the table:
- Minnesota registered 146,679 deer in firearms seasons, 30,043 in archery and 9,646 by muzzleloader. The DNR also sold 111,471 archery and 42,143 muzzleloader licenses.
- Wisconsin's nine-day gun season registered 182,084 deer in the DNR's preliminary count. The DNR's acting deer program specialist told Outdoor News that 2025 had "the highest statewide buck harvest since 2007, and the highest overall harvest since 2012."
- Iowa's harvest was 56% antlerless. The DNR issued 6,055 any-deer licenses to nonresidents.
Iowa's top deer counties and their land values
Iowa reports harvest by county, which makes it the easiest of the three states to line up against land values.
| County | Deer reported, 2025-26 | Antlered buck kill per sq. mile | ISU 2025 land value per acre | Compared with ISU state average (Kedron calculation) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clayton | 4,247 | 1.96 | $10,825 | 6% below |
| Allamakee | 3,495 | 1.99 | $9,742 | 16% below |
| Winneshiek | 2,519 | 1.24 | $11,608 | about even |
| Jackson | 2,486 | 1.55 | $11,575 | about even |
| Madison | 2,468 | 1.62 | $9,770 | 15% below |
| Linn | 2,454 | 1.35 | $13,513 | 17% above |
| Dubuque | 2,390 | 1.42 | $13,677 | 18% above |
| Warren | 2,385 | 1.70 | $10,578 | 8% below |
| Lee | 2,258 | 1.57 | $10,222 | 11% below |
| Van Buren | 2,180 | 1.57 | $8,438 | 27% below |
Sources: Iowa DNR, White-tailed Deer Program Report, 2025-2026 season. Land values from the Iowa State University 2025 Land Value Survey, released December 2025 (statewide average $11,549). The comparison column is a Kedron calculation.
The two counties with the most deer registered, Clayton and Allamakee, both sit below Iowa's average farmland value. ISU's survey values farmland, where soil quality sets the price, not deer. A buyer shopping for timber and bluffs in northeast Iowa is shopping a different market from the one ISU measures. The Iowa REALTORS Land Institute chapter tracks that market more closely: it valued timber in its Northeast district at $5,429 an acre as of September 1, 2026, against $15,183 for high-quality cropland in the same district (RLI Iowa chapter, released September 24, 2026).
Wisconsin's top deer units and wooded land prices
Wisconsin reports harvest by deer management unit. Most units in the farmland zones carry a county name, which lets you set them next to the state's county forest land sales. The table below lists the ten Central and Southern Farmland Zone units with the most deer registered in the 2025 nine-day gun season.
| Deer management unit | Deer registered, 2025 nine-day gun season | Forest land sales, 2025 | Forest land price per acre, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marathon | 6,725 | 28 | $4,694 |
| Vernon | 5,507 | 18 | $6,497 |
| Waupaca | 5,466 | 16 | $6,158 |
| Clark | 5,286 | 21 | $3,318 |
| Dunn | 5,253 | 18 | $5,491 |
| Shawano | 5,224 | 8 | $5,805 |
| Polk | 4,606 | 19 | $4,043 |
| Monroe | 4,601 | 13 | $6,049 |
| Portage | 4,597 | 9 | $5,010 |
| Waushara | 4,114 | 13 | $5,507 |
| Buffalo (for contrast) | 3,046 | 21 | $8,230 |
Sources: Wisconsin DNR, 2025 nine-day gun season harvest by unit, data pulled Feb. 13, 2026. USDA NASS and Wisconsin DATCP, Forest Land Sales 2025, released Sept. 1, 2026 (forest land continuing in forest use; statewide 902 sales at $3,952 an acre). The DNR replaces its harvest files each season, so after the 2026 gun season that link will show 2026 numbers.
Buffalo County registered fewer deer than any of those ten units and had the highest forest land price in this table. Clark County sat fourth on the list and had the lowest price in the table. Harvest and price answer different questions.
Wisconsin's gun-season release adds a per-square-mile view: Marquette County led the Central Farmland Zone with 7.9 deer registered per square mile during the 2025 nine-day gun season, and Vernon County led the Southern Farmland Zone with 6.5 (Wisconsin DNR, Dec. 2, 2025).
Minnesota's highest-density permit areas
Minnesota reports by deer permit area (DPA), not county. The five DPAs with the most deer registered per square mile in 2025:
| Deer permit area | Total registered, 2025 | Deer per sq. mile | Bucks per sq. mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| 225 | 5,598 | 9.06 | 4.60 |
| 227 | 4,198 | 8.90 | 4.31 |
| 646 | 2,832 | 8.88 | 3.97 |
| 214 | 4,781 | 8.63 | 4.04 |
| 222 | 3,420 | 8.27 | 4.06 |
Source: Minnesota DNR, 2025 Deer Harvest Report, completed March 2026. The DNR counts adult males as bucks (male fawns count as antlerless), so in these areas bucks make up about half of each total. Match a parcel to its DPA on the DNR's permit area map before quoting a figure.
How to read these numbers
- Totals scale with size. A big county registers more deer than a small one with the same density. Compare per square mile where the state publishes it (Iowa's buck kill per square mile, Minnesota's deer per square mile, Wisconsin's gun-season figures).
- Harvest is not population. It counts what hunters registered, which depends on how many people hunted and how many antlerless tags the DNR made available.
- Units don't match parcels. A county or permit area covers hundreds of square miles. The ridge a buyer is looking at can be better or worse than its unit.
- Seasons aren't the same. Iowa's figure covers the 2025-26 season. Minnesota and Wisconsin report the 2025 season. Wisconsin's all-season total is as of January 20, 2026, and its unit figures are nine-day gun season numbers pulled February 13, 2026.
- Farmland values aren't hunting land values. ISU's county values measure farmland. For wooded and recreational ground, use Wisconsin's forest land sales or RLI's Iowa timber values, and see Wisconsin wooded and hunting land prices by county.
How to use harvest data in a listing
Harvest data belongs in a hunting land listing as context, stated plainly and dated. "Allamakee County hunters reported 3,495 deer in the 2025-26 season (Iowa DNR)" is a fact a buyer can check. "Loaded with deer" is a promise the seller can't keep, and overpromised deer is one of the deal-breakers that make buyers walk.
- Name the unit, the season and the agency every time.
- Use the per-square-mile figure when there is one.
- Put it next to what the property shows on its own: bedding cover, food, water, access, pressure from neighbors and dated trail camera photos.
- For out-of-state buyers in Iowa, pair it with the tag rules. See Iowa nonresident deer tags for landowners.
License sales are the other useful number. Wisconsin's 790,044 deer hunting privileges and Minnesota's 349,713 resident and nonresident firearms licenses (Kedron calculation; the DNR's total of 573,429 also counts youth licenses and bonus permits) mark the pool of people who might one day want their own ground. They count licenses, not people. One hunter can hold several (a firearms and an archery license, for example), so the number of individual hunters is smaller than the total of all licenses sold. That's the audience what hunting land buyers look for is written about.
When this updates
- Minnesota DNR harvest report: once a year. The 2025 report was completed in March 2026. Expect the 2026 report in spring 2027.
- Wisconsin DNR harvest summaries: posted through the season and totaled after it closes. The DNR replaces the files each season, so its links now show 2026 numbers as they come in.
- Iowa DNR deer program report: once a year after the season. Iowa also posts a live county harvest report during the season.
- Land values: ISU every December, RLI Iowa every March and September, Wisconsin forest land sales each late summer (the 2025 edition came out September 1, 2026).
Each figure above carries its own source and date. We'll refresh this page when the 2026 season numbers are final, in spring 2027.
What to do next
Before you quote a harvest number in a listing, look up the parcel's county, deer management unit or permit area and pull the per-square-mile figure from the agency report. Then write one sentence with the number, the season and the source. More dated reports are on the market data page.
