VIDEO. “This yr, it is distinctive”: wine grower loses 1 hectare of vines to deer

After we discuss injury to agricultural plots, we naturally consider wild boar. As well as, final April, hunters from the area and farmers, hand in hand, requested state providers to vary the laws to scale back the wild boar inhabitants and stop injury to crops, primarily corn.

To the west of the area, in his city of Loussous-Débat, Thierry Bourragne encounters the identical downside as many farmers, the destruction of a part of his crops. The one distinction is that it’s a deer that involves feed on his vine. “Deer have all the time come and eaten the grapes, the leaves, the buds besides this yr, it has by no means been seen,” defined the winemaker. There are 20 ha, in AOP Saint-Mont and IGP Cotes de Gascogne.And deer assault all types of grapes indiscriminately.

For Thierry Bourragne, the scenario is beginning to be very problematic. “They ate the principle branches first.

1 hectare of perdu

A lifelong winemaker, he took over the household enterprise greater than twenty years in the past. Deer sometimes ate a couple of scattered crops. On the finish of June, he estimates that he misplaced about 4,000 crops, or 1 hectare. “They go into the plots and construct an entire row. We’re surrounded by woods and meadows, however the deer inhabitants is changing into increasingly necessary. I am unable to clarify why.”

Whereas inspecting the winery, Thierry Bourragne factors out rows the place the legs are naked. On others, the leaves have already grown again. “Nevertheless it’s over, they will not produce something this yr. And for the youngest crops, that are 4 years previous, there’s a danger that they will not begin once more correctly subsequent yr as a result of they will not they’ve sufficient photosynthesis sources.”

Frost, milkweed … and deer

Though there are some repellents to maintain deer away, their effectiveness remains to be very restricted, assures Thierry Bourragne. As for fencing his whole winery, divided into three small islands within the city of Loussous-Débat, “it is unbelievable,” he says. “Too costly and above all utterly ineffective. It will be ineffective, the deer would nonetheless undergo. The hunters already take loads, they do what they’ll, so I do not see how they’ll resolve this downside.”

The winemaker needs the general public authorities to “tackle the issue”. “I had two years of frost in 2021 and 2022, and in 2023 I harvested solely 15% of the winery final yr. “

The injury won’t be for this yr both, contemplating Thierry Bourragne. The deer will come again to assault the expansion, however the legs are nonetheless intact now too excessive and out of attain. “This yr I misplaced 1 ha, who is aware of what it is going to be within the following years if nothing is completed.”