Photo contest added to Missouri's Share the Harvest program

There's a new feature to this year's Share the Harvest deer hunting program - a photo contest with various prizes for hunters who show the deer that they have processed to donate to food banks and food pantries.

Deer hunting season started Sept. 15 and runs through Jan. 15, 2020, according to a news release from the Missouri Department of Conservation.

MDC and the Conservation Federation of Missouri encourage deer hunters to participate in the state's Share the Harvest program, which is administered by the MDC and the CFM.

Share the Harvest allows deer hunters to donate extra venison to participating meat processors throughout the state, and the then-packaged venison is given to local food banks and food pantries for distribution as lean, high-quality protein to Missourians in need of food assistance.

The CFM is also holding a "Share Your Harvest" photo contest for participating hunters. Deer hunters can share a photo of their harvest with the CFM at confedmo.org/programs/outreach/share-the-harvest, along with information about where deer or venison was donated for processing.

Hunters are then automatically entered into a contest for various prizes, with a prize drawing on Jan. 27. The contest entry period closes at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 22.

Last season, hunters donated more than 259,400 pounds of venison to the Share the Harvest program, including 4,855 whole deer, according to the MDC.

Since 1992, when Share the Harvest began, the program has provided more than 4 million pounds of venison.

Meat-processing fees are covered entirely or in part by local and statewide sponsors, and hunters should contact individual processors to determine what funds are available. If there are no sponsorship funds available, hunters are responsible for processing fees.

Participating Share the Harvest processors can be found at mdc.mo.gov/share. People interested in Share the Harvest venison should contact local food banks or food pantries.

Gasconade County is among the 29 Missouri counties this deer season that are chronic wasting disease management zones.

Chronic wasting disease is an infectious prion disease that is deadly for deer. There's no evidence CWD affects humans, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does caution that people should not eat an animal that tests positive for the disease.

Deer harvested in the MDC's CWD Management Zones can only be donated to approved processors that are in the Share the Harvest CWD Testing Program located within or directly adjacent to a CWD Management Zone. Participating processors can be found at mdc.mo.gov/cwd under "Share the Harvest."

Deer harvested in a CWD Management Zone that have been sampled for CWD before being taken to a processor for donation can be presented with the CWD barcode provided at the sampling station as proof of sampling.

"If a sample has not been collected before donation, the processor will collect the sample or remove the head and submit it to MDC for sampling," according to MDC's news release.

Deer harvested outside a CWD Management Zone can be donated to any Share the Harvest processor.