Farmers gathered in the middle of a cornfield in Cesson-Sévigné, near Rennes. They denounce the ravages of crows in their cultures. - C. Allain / 20 Minutes

  • In Ille-et-Vilaine, farmers face very large crow populations.
  • The birds come to destroy their corn crops by devouring the seed.
  • They ask the authorities to regulate their number and the population to understand their approach.

" I have tried everything. The cannon, the cages, the scarecrows. I ended up driving in my field twice a day with my father to scare them. ” Hervé Sarrazin is upset. Planted in the middle of its small corn seedlings, the bull calf breeder installed in Cesson-Sévigné (Ille-et-Vilaine) faces a very intelligent predator at the start of this summer. While his counterparts in Finistère and Côtes d'Armor mourn their losses because of the jackdaw, he went to war against the crow. The black bird often symbol of unhappiness made famous by the work of Hitchcock became the nightmare of the farmers since it proliferated around the Breton capital. "My wife tells me that I'm crazy," adds Mickaël Heurtin.

Every day, this cow breeder installed close to Rennes goes to his corn fields to hunt crows. “If we don't do it, they destroy everything and we have to resow. We lose money, time and we lose performance. But it is especially morally, that it is depressing. We don't sleep anymore at night, we go crazy for it, ”explains the farmer.

Illustration of a crow, here in a park in Paris. - Ludovic Marin / AFP

Always present in the region, the crow has seen its populations multiply, as have magpies, crows, pigeons and jackdaws. Very intelligent, these birds manage to spot the corn seeds when they are planted and come to taste them. “For the past two weeks, it's been madness. We keep calling. Farmers don't know what to do, ”explains Christian Mochet, member of the FDSEA office in Ille-et-Vilaine.

"We are not against biodiversity but we must control it"

The first French agricultural union knows that it is walking on eggs with this subject. Because his request is quite clear. “We have to limit populations. We are not against biodiversity but we must control it. There, it is no longer tenable ”, explains Jimmy Guérin, president of the Young farmers of the department. In other words, you have to kill them.

Several problems then arise: environmental associations oppose it, the population perceives it quite badly and hunters, whose population is aging, are not always interested in coming to "shoot" birds much more cunning than them. “They have to come camouflaged early in the morning and wait. If a hunter hits ten in a day, he's a sniper, ”says a breeder.

According to the farmers, there are sometimes hundreds of crows invading their fields, decimating the crops intended to feed their animals. And containment has visibly accentuated their proliferation. "Hunting was prohibited, they were quiet," said the FDSEA official. Cage catches and scaring cannons are no longer enough.

"The impression of passing for assassins"

In addition to hunting, farmers are questioning the possibility of neutralizing eggs, as is the case for gulls for example. “The problem is that we have the impression of passing for assassins. But people need to know. When you have to resow, it's time to spend, fuel oil to spend, [phytosanitary] product to buy back, ”adds another local farmer.

Farmers appeal for help and fear the situation will turn around again in September when sowing wheat. "We must act, otherwise, we run to disaster", implores Mickaël Heurtin.

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