Bait splits by peninsula and deer disease rules by county

Baiting and feeding are banned in the Lower Peninsula, on “both public and private lands,” under the 2026 Deer Hunting Regulations Summary. In the Upper Peninsula baiting is allowed within limits, given below. The DNR defines bait as a substance “intended for consumption by deer” and made of grains, minerals, fruits, vegetables, hay or other food materials “used as an aid in hunting”; feed is the same kind of material that “may attract deer or elk for any reason other than hunting” (DNR Baiting and Feeding page, read Oct. 30, 2026).

The peninsula line decides bait. Disease rules follow county and township lines, each stated below with its place. The DNR’s bovine TB page says that disease “can be transmitted either directly (contact between infected and non-infected individuals) or indirectly (contaminated feed and water)”; no page read states why the CWD side of the rules exists. One Lower Peninsula exception: hunters with disabilities who meet specific requirements may bait during the Liberty and Independence Hunts only (Baiting and Feeding page).

Upper Peninsula limits and a dated notice

In the Upper Peninsula, baiting is allowed under the 2026 Summary and the same DNR page. Baiting may occur only from Sept. 15 to Jan. 1. Bait volume at any hunting site cannot exceed 2 gallons, spread over at least a 10-foot by 10-foot area and scattered directly on the ground.

This is advice, not a rule. To “minimize exposure of deer to diseases that may be present,” the DNR recommends “not placing bait or feed repeatedly at the same point on the ground, and only baiting when actively hunting.”

Upper Peninsula feeding has its own limits. For recreational viewing, the Baiting and Feeding page sets two gallons per residence per calendar day, within 100 yards of a residence on land the person owns or possesses, and at least 100 yards from any area accessible to cattle, goats, sheep, new world camelids, bison, swine, horses or captive cervidae.

On scents, the 2026 Summary allows food-scented materials statewide, if “made inaccessible for consumption by deer and placed in a manner to prohibit physical contact with deer.” The Baiting and Feeding page states the same requirement for “areas where baiting is banned.” Lures containing cervid urine are barred except products from manufacturers enrolled in the Responsible Hunting Scent Association’s or Archery Trade Association’s Deer Protection Program, tested for chronic wasting disease (CWD) and “clearly labeled as such.” Food plots are allowed on private land; on public lands, “You cannot construct or maintain a food plot or artificial garden to attract wildlife on public lands.”

Under the heading “Subject to change,” the Baiting and Feeding page, read Oct. 30, 2026, says: “Feeding regulations are subject to change in accordance with Public Act 86 of 2026. The Natural Resources Commission will be discussing deer and elk feeding and any potential regulations changes at the November 12, 2026, meeting.” The DNR’s Natural Resources Commission page, read Oct. 30, 2026, lists that meeting for Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, at 9:30 a.m. in Lansing.

The notice names feeding, not baiting, and does not say what may change. The rules above are as the Summary and the DNR page state them on the day read.

CWD detection and testing counties

The CWD rules use three different maps. The first is where CWD has been found. Since the initial finding in 2015, the Summary says, free-ranging deer in Allegan, Clinton, Dickinson, Eaton, Genesee, Gladwin, Gratiot, Hillsdale, Ingham, Ionia, Isabella, Jackson, Kent, Mecosta, Midland, Montcalm, Ogemaw and Washtenaw counties have been positively confirmed with CWD. The DNR’s CWD locations page, read Oct. 31, 2026, lists the same 18, plus three detections with county “Unknown,” for a total of 389; Montcalm County shows 203. The pages read tie no baiting or feeding rule to this list. The Upper Peninsula rules above are stated for the whole peninsula, and no page read names an exception for Dickinson County, the one Upper Peninsula county on it.

The second is where the DNR is testing. “For 2026, focused surveillance is taking place in Ionia, Kent, Mecosta, Montcalm and Newaygo counties,” the Summary says. Testing there is free through DNR drop boxes and staffed sample submission sites, and all heads tested for CWD are also screened for bovine tuberculosis (DNR CWD testing page).

The carcass-movement area

The third map is where a deer may not leave. The 2026 Summary’s transport section, and, with small differences of wording, the DNR’s CWD hunting regulations page, state: “A deer harvested in Montcalm County in its entirety; Otisco, Orleans, Ronald or North Plains townships in Ionia County; or Nelson, Spencer, Courtland, Oakfield, Grattan or Cannon townships in Kent County cannot be possessed or transported outside of those listed areas, unless:”

• “The harvested deer is deboned meat, quarters or other parts that do not have any part of the spinal column or head attached: antlers; antlers attached to a skull or skull cap cleaned of all brain and muscle tissue; hides; upper canine teeth; or a finished taxidermist mount.”
• “OR the deer carcass is taken directly to a registered processor.”
• “AND/OR the intact deer head detached from the carcass is taken directly to a licensed taxidermist.”

The pages read give this area no name; this story calls it the carcass-movement area: Montcalm County “in its entirety,” four townships in Ionia County and six in Kent County. Only those townships, not all of Ionia and Kent, carry the restriction.

Into Michigan, statewide, only hides, deboned meat and quarters or parts with no spinal column or head attached, finished taxidermy products and cleaned teeth or antlers on a cleaned skull cap may come from a cervid hunted in another state or province (Summary). Out of Michigan, the Summary says only that nonresidents “may need to comply with restrictions in other states”; this story states none. A roadkill deer takes a permit, and its parts cannot leave the county of the collision except the same deboned and cleaned parts, which the Summary ties to “the DNR’s efforts to respond to and manage chronic wasting disease.”

TB counties, and what a test costs

Bovine tuberculosis, or bovine TB, is endemic among white-tailed deer in the northeastern Lower Peninsula, per the Summary. The DNR’s bovine TB locations page, read Oct. 30, 2026, lists 17 counties with a positive detection in white-tailed deer from 1975 to the present: Alcona, Alpena, Antrim, Benzie, Cheboygan, Crawford, Emmet, Iosco, Mecosta, Montmorency, Ogemaw, Osceola, Oscoda, Otsego, Presque Isle, Roscommon and Shiawassee. For 2026, focused surveillance is taking place in Alcona, Alpena, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Iosco, Montmorency, Ogemaw, Oscoda, Otsego, Presque Isle and Roscommon counties, and deer “can also be turned in for TB testing from anywhere in the state at the hunter’s request” (DNR bovine TB testing page).

The pages read attach no TB-specific baiting, feeding or carcass rule to those counties: baiting and feeding there fall under the Lower Peninsula ban, and the movement restriction above is a CWD rule. The 2016 update of the DNR’s Michigan Deer Management Plan records that “baiting and feeding of deer were banned in the TB management area (a portion of the NE Lower Peninsula) in 1998”; that is history, not a 2026 rule. The Summary also lists a DMU 487 antlerless deer license (a DMU is a deer management unit), covered in the licensing guide in this issue. No page read puts a baiting, feeding, testing or carcass rule on DMU 487 by name or lists its counties.

A harvest report comes first: “To receive CWD testing, a harvest report must be completed prior to sample submission” (DNR CWD testing page). Where to take a head is in the tagging and field-care guide in this issue. In the five focused CWD counties testing is free, and “Self-sample shipping test kits are not available in these 5 counties this year.” Hunters “in all other counties outside of active CWD or TB focused surveillance areas” are eligible for a free lymph node shipping kit and extract the nodes themselves. The same page names 11 counties where, because of bovine TB risk, hunters “should not extract lymph nodes” and should submit heads to a DNR wildlife field office and request CWD testing as well. Paid testing at the Michigan State University Diagnostic Laboratory or the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory is “for a fee”; the DNR page gives no amount. Donating a deer from a CWD or TB county is in the donation guide in this issue, and the CDC’s advice on venison is in the kitchen guide in this issue.

Two gaps remain as of Oct. 31. The testing page sends heads from the five focused counties to “a DNR sample submission site,” the carcass-movement rule names only a registered processor and a licensed taxidermist as destinations for a head, and the DNR’s sample-site list has no row for Montcalm or Newaygo County. The DNR’s two pages, read again Oct. 31, name no submission site in Montcalm or Newaygo County; call the Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 before you drive with a head. And the testing page’s kit table has rows for sites in all five focused counties although the page says kits are not available there; this story follows the page’s statement.

The sample-site list says, “Location information could change as the season progresses.” Read it again, and after Nov. 12 the Baiting and Feeding page, before a hunt that crosses a peninsula or county line.