New generation takes over reindeer station

Stefan Hrafn Magnusson have had reindeer station in Isortoq for almost 40 years. His son and daughter are now about to take over the operation, which now consists to a greater extent of selling trips to tourists and trophy hunting.

It is the son Manitsiaq John Nielsen aged 28 and daughter Freyja Athena Stefánsdóttir aged 23, who runs the company, while Stefán Hrafn Magnússon, who is 69 today, acts as a consultant.

Stefan Hrafn Magnusson have had reindeer station in Isortoq for almost 40 years. His son and daughter are now about to take over the operation, which now consists to a greater extent of selling trips to tourists and trophy hunting.

It is the son Manitsiaq John Nielsen aged 28 and daughter Freyja Athena Stefánsdóttir aged 23, who runs the company, while Stefán Hrafn Magnússon, who is 69 today, acts as a consultant.

Stefán's story is unique. This is what the English-language Icelandic Times says in a review of the biography "Isortoq: Stefán, the reindeer farmer", written by Svava Jónsdóttir.

In the book, Stefán tells about his life before and after he moved to Greenland. About his adventurous life, the challenges, the accidents, the animals, nature and it global warming affecting his business.

When Stefán grew up, he spent all the summers on his grandparents' farm in Vestisland. His dream was to become a farmer, and he was interested in the Arctic, which for him was one adventure.

At the age of 15, Stefán took to Greenland for the first time – alone, and in the following years he traveled there several times and got to know the country.

Youth characterized by reindeer

Otherwise, growing up was characterized by reindeer and he learned reindeer husbandry from scratch.

After Stefán had received his agricultural education in Iceland, he moved to Norway at the age of 19 for to work as a reindeer herder for the Sami. He worked on a cattle farm in Canada, and he studied reindeer husbandry in Sweden, where he attended high school in Gellivare i Swedish Sameland, where there was a high school program that included reindeer husbandry.

Then he moved to Alaska, where he taught reindeer husbandry and the use of Icelandic horses as means of transportation on the Alaskan tundra similar to cowboy life in Texas, and worked as a consultant in reindeer husbandry.

Reindeer in South Greenland

With his experiences about reindeer breeding, Stéfan moved to Greenland around 1980 and collaborated with Ole Kristiansen with reindeer in South Greenland.

Ole was a pioneer and brought the reindeer to South Greenland in 1973 from the Norwegian reindeer population in Itinnera i Nuup Kangerlua, which KGH imported from Stjernøy in Finnmark in Northern Norway in 1953.

In 1989, Stéfan set up Magnússon his reindeer station and for the last 30 years or so he has been working with reindeer on a huge piece of land in South Greenland.

The farm is called Isortuusua (which means 'Big Muddy Water' – referring to the glacial mud that is brought out from the bottom of the glacier at the Inland Ice Sheet), and the family business is called Isortoq Reindeer Station.

Hard work, though insufficient support

The reindeer population developed from a few hundred to over 5000 when there were the most.

Stéfan himself had to develop the business and generate revenue. He didn't get any help either home rule or self-rule, which was apparently not interested in reindeer husbandry.

– Or they put don't get into it as we weren't that big in many, but I will mention.

That we accounted for 30 percent of three years in a row agricultural production in Greenland and for 100 percent of the export of agricultural goods from Greenland, says Stéfan Magnússon and adds:

- All agricultural support went to and goes to the sheep farmers. Reindeer breeding was and is obviously not recognized as eligible for support.

- When we slaughtered, we did it for ourselves money, while sheep farming received procurement subsidies, at the same time Neqi also received A/S a procurement subsidy, he says.

- I think the total procurement grant i 2023 ran up to 33 kroner per kilo of slaughtered lamb, while reindeer breeding did not support.

- Compared to Norway, Norway paid procurement subsidies of up to 250 kroner per purchased animal. Sweden (member of the EU) used to be around eight kroner in subsidies per kilogram.

However, he was supported by Kaj Egede when he was Minister of Agriculture.

- Kaj Egede had good insight into the agricultural industry in South Greenland and had big visions, says Stéfan Magnússon.

The slaughterhouse

It was hard work, and he built his own slaughterhouse, which was approved for export by EU and CFIA Canada. The slaughterhouse still exists and is in good mechanical condition.

- We have maintained the standard according to regulations according to veterinary requirements, he tells Sermitsiaq.

- Before we built the slaughterhouse, we applied for business development support the construction, but was refused. The claim from the then administration was that the slaughterhouse was industry and not agriculture. But a few years later, Neqi A/S got 60 million for the modernization of the lamb slaughterhouse in Narsaq. We only had to use about four million at the time.

At one point, when both the abattoir in Narsaq and the musk abattoir in Kangerlussuaq gave a deficit, offered Stéfan Magnússon to slaughter all lambs and other animals at his slaughterhouse in Isortoq without to receive subsidies.

- But it was rejected, even though the home rule could have saved at the time money on it. This was mainly due to negotiations with KNI and The lamb slaughterhouse about the purchase price, he estimates.

Means you that support for agriculture is negative?

- Many people perceive subsidies as something negative, but they forget that subsidies to agriculture make food cheaper to buy for citizens in general. It is a democratic distribution of equal living conditions for everyone in society. Support for agriculture and business should therefore be considered a good thing society, says Stéfan Magnússon and adds, but the support should also include reindeer breeding.

Export to many countries

Stéfan Magnússon could not sell all the reindeer meat in Greenland, so he has exported to changers countries. He had good contacts both in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Canada and in Alaska, and over the years has exported to all these countries as well as several countries in EU.

At some point he exported the reindeer meat to gourmet restaurants in Montreal and the rest Quebec - i.e. the French part of Canada.

Increasing expenses

Gradually is the costs of reindeer production increased so much that Stéfan Magnússon has difficult to follow, which is the reason for the switch to trophy hunting.

It is, among other things increased costs for helicopters when the reindeer must be collected.

- The government requires in the Act on Livestock and Semi-domesticated Livestock that we marks all animals, but there is no compensation from the public, which would make it possible for us to fulfill this legislation 100 percent, explains Stéfan about the increased expenses.

At the same time creates climate change problems for the reindeer's natural food, since after during thawing periods, frost comes, and ice forms on top of the natural food which heather and lichen bushes and other plants that the reindeer feed on and scrape up with their hooves.

But the ice makes them not can come down to the food.

- This means that in the future of reindeer breeding you have to bet on systematic feeding of the animals similar to what other agriculture does. We are these measures have not yet started, and a concrete agreement is still missing The agricultural administration in the self-government, which will make this possible, he says.

The same phenomenon experienced by reindeer herders elsewhere in the world.

- Our colleagues in Norway, Sweden and Finland practice feeding supplements in winter with purchased feed. But in Greenland it will be very expensive to get transported feed to the country. Therefore, it will be more self-supporting and economically correct with long-term planning and producing the feed locally, says he.

Management

He struggles with it too public for help with the operation of reindeer breeding and understanding of the problems.

- In icy winters, the fjord that separates the reindeer station's northern border freezes and Ivittuut in Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq. When this fjord gets ice, it has the reindeer tend to wander over the border to Ivittuut. Self-governing confiscates these animals and issues hunting licenses to the public. It is clean confiscation of our property without compensation in our opinion, assesses he.

- We would like to capture these animals and will therefore apply for Technical Management in Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq to build a fence so we can capture these animals and transport them home under conditions where we are not dependent on, whether there is ice on the fjord. Today, this ice is very unstable and often only lasts for two weeks or so. Therefore, it is very unsafe to drive over with snowmobiles, which we need to drive the reindeer together and push them back, though the ice carries the reindeer with their broad hooves. There are also dangerous power points, where the ice can be very thin if there are warm periods for a few days, such as it often happens with climate change.

New initiatives in tourism

Stéfan Magnússon has always be at the forefront of developments and, as an entrepreneur, think in new ways possibilities.

He was thus among second helping to start trophy hunting in Greenland. At the beginning of the nineties there was much opposition to his trophy hunt.

He also helped to form the outfitter scheme in Greenland.

- As far as I remember, we held the first courses in 1996. Famous people took part here outfitters such as Mattias Ingemann and Karsten Lings from Kangerlussuaq. This was followed by Trofækurser in Kangerlussuaq the following years.

- In 2012, we made a cooperation agreement with an Icelandic fishing company to finance a luxurious tourist camp with cabins in the reindeer herding country, where people from the whole world comes to hunt, fish or hike, he says.

- Today, the biggest part of the business is therefore tourism and especially trophy hunting.

- The tourist activities are mainly marketed from Iceland and on social media media.

- The negative side of this is that there are not enough funds for the day-to-day operation, as too much profit flows out of the country, which could stay used for further expansion and consolidation of reindeer breeding as such. But the deal is over soon so there will be financial improvements to this in the future, says Stéfan Magnússon.

There is also another reindeer breeder in South Greenland. It is Hans Janussen who has one population of 400 animals on the island of Tuttutooq just opposite Narsaq. His company is called: Tuttutooq named after the island.