The fallow deer is behind increasing destruction on arable land in Sweden.
It shows recent figures from the Swedish Board of Agriculture.
- It affects financially, it's my salary.
I sell consulting hours for 500,000 a year and I am badly forced to do otherwise because I will go bankrupt, says grain farmer Alexander von Bothmer.
The damage to agricultural crops has almost doubled since 2014, when the Swedish Board of Agriculture last compiled a report.
According to the agency's investigation, 165,000 tonnes of game grain were destroyed in 2020, compared with 88,000 tonnes in 2014.
Since 2014, fallow deer's damage to grassland, ie hay, has also increased by 1,400 percent.
The greatest damage is still caused by wild boar, but in Södermanland the damage from mainly fallow deer is increasing.
Great despair
Increased damage will be costly for farmers.
For Alexander von Bothmer, the loss of the harvest costs SEK 200,000–350,000 a year.
Like many others in Södermanland, he and his father lease the land.
They have set traps, fences, hunted and tried to scare the animals away, but the effect seems short-lived.
Last year, they flew over 70 of the farm's 450 hectares and discovered, among other things, 30 percent damage to the rapeseed.
- We felt quite a lot of abandonment and powerlessness.
We knew we had injuries but that it was so heavenly little, it was a little awakening.
Alexander has given it five years - if the situation does not get better, he will pack up and go to school again.
One year has already passed.
"Can be solved with dialogue"
In the last three years, applications for protection hunting of fallow deer have increased in Södermanland.
So far this year, there have been more applications than the whole of 2020, according to the County Administrative Board.
Alexander von Bothmer wants to see more action from the state.
- Either you give a direct support to a game fence that is two and a half meters high so that no animal comes through, which I think is a very boring solution, but the best thing would be if you made sure to shoot more animals, the trunk must go down.
The hunting season for fallow deer is valid from 1 September to 31 March.
The Swedish Hunters' Association thinks that the rules for fallow deer hunting are generous and are not as convinced that a national provision to keep the tribe down is necessary.
- This is something we can solve with increased dialogue.
It is a matter for hunters, farmers and foresters.
Of course, we hunters can adapt our shooting and increase it, but at the same time forest owners must ensure that there is feed for the animals and farmers must facilitate hunting in, for example, grain, says Matilda Söderqvist, hunting care consultant in Södermanland County at the Swedish Hunters Association.