Farmer Emil Sällvik holds up a dead dove and sighs:
"This gangster has a gnawing rapeseed leaf in his beak.
Cold snap in December
After last year's abundant harvest and high rapeseed prices, many farmers in Skåne sowed winter rapeseed in August. Everything looked good. But before Christmas came a few days of unusually severe cold.
"This year we may only have just under half as much rapeseed field because the winter was really harsh and cold. This meant that much of the rapeseed died," says Emil Sällvik.
The pigeon thrives among sparse rapeseed plants
A few months ago, Emil Sällvik chose to remove the rapeseed on 100 of his 180 rapeseed hectares and grow spring barley instead. He estimates that this means up to two million kronor in reduced revenue because rapeseed pays better. And then there was the new problem with the pigeons. Emil has a hunting license and is allowed to conduct protective hunting on his land. He shows the stomach contents of the pigeon, which is full of young rapeseed shoots.
"Since the rapeseed has become so extremely sparse from the harsh winter, there is too much space between the plants and then we have a pigeon invasion on top of the already problematic rapeseed population," says Emil Sällvik.