For a start, there's undulating hills, craggy nooks and crannies and paddocks full of bracken covering the ground.

It might seem pretty empty, until you see a flurry of movement, bursting from the canopy and a large herd of fallow deer jumping across the wide plain.

The deer, well they were always here, but Springfield Deer Farm has been in operation in some way, shape, or form, for the past 30 years.

For the past decade, it's been run by Michal and Connie Frydrych, who first came on the idea as a "retirement" job.

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"I was in Russia at the time, and I saw the opportunity for a deer farm in Tasmania, I was looking for something to do in retirement, and here we are 10 years later."

Debate over how to manage Tasmania's wild deer population was reignited last week, after restaurateurs and game processor Lenah Game Meats called for the government to establish a commercial wild-shot deer industry.

Lenah Game Meat's John Kelly, who has long advocated for a wild-shot industry, said allowing recreational hunters to shoot deer for a profit, which could be then on-sold to the hospitality industry would help keep deer numbers down and the herd under control.

However, Mr Frydrych says allowing recreational hunters to catch deer in the wild would not only decimate his industry, it would also compromise on the quality of the venison product. There are also questions over the regulation of such an industry in Tasmania.

Springfield Deer Farm is the largest commercial venison farm in Northern Tasmania and, as such, operates under strict regulations.

"Approval for wild shot [venison] for human consumption would just lead to 'wild deer farming' with no cost or hygiene control or targeted reduction of wild deer," he said.

Mr Frydrych said there was a misconception about deer farms in Tasmania, and wanted the public to know they weren't farming deer that were "shoved into cages and never saw the sunlight".

At Springfield Deer Farm, the deer are free range, they are fenced in, but otherwise they live exactly how they would in the wild. They have about 56 hectares to roam in to find food, to breed and raise their babies.

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"We let them live as they would in the wild, we try not to interfere, because they are wild animals," he said.

The only intervention they do, as farmers, was to feed the herd silage in winter. They also try to keep herd numbers around 600.

"Sometimes the herd loses a few of the babies, some in winter, the late born ones...when they are born they are so small, they hide in the bracken otherwise they could be picked off by a large crow," he said.

"But that's just nature; I think of it as the price of nature for doing what we're doing."

Mr Frydrych said he and his wife had always loved wild animals, and the deer were the perfect way for them to farm in a non-traditional way.

He said while they kept their distance, there were a few of the animals that had won him over.

"We do try not to interfere, and they keep their distance, they are flighty, but there's a few I know I can come within four metres of," he said.

"Last night there were seven or eight of the fawns just running crazily around the dam."

The deer are processed when they reach two to three years of age. Typically, Mr Frydrych said he processes six to eight deer once a week, but now, due to declining demand and the impact of the pandemic, it was about three deer per fortnight.

Springfield Deer Farm has an abattoir on site and refrigerate the meat until it's time to deliver orders.

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Mr Frydrych said venison was an alternative protein source to more traditional animal protein, but did not have the same exposure as other meat, like lamb.

"There's an apprehension [among the community] about eating venison, but it should just be seen as another part of the diet," he said.

Mr Frydrych said if he sold backstrap to restaurants he was left wondering what to do with the rest of the carcase, and often had to resort to sending it across to Trowunna Wildlife Park for the Tasmanian Devils.

Another issue Mr Frydrych said facing the industry was branding - there was no much support to promote the product as clean, green and Tasmanian.

He said supermarkets were stocking product that was only packed in Tasmania, but marketing on the packaging made it look like it was Tasmanian fallow deer.

If the paddock to plate story wasn't clear, he said, then consumers wouldn't buy local.

He said he'd even sent across some legs for free to TasTAFE for the students to practice cooking, but the legs ended up discarded.

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It meant that even deer farmers were struggling to make ends meet, because there was not strong enough demand for the large portions of the meat they were producing.

He said that would still be the case if the government established a wild-shot market in the state.

"Who would regulate what would happen to the waste?"

Commercial deer farmers are also bound to regulation that includes not being able to shoot female deer for four months of the year, to ensure the viability of the herd.

Mr Frydrych questioned how the government would ensure hunters would stick to those regulations.

Debate over wild fallow deer in Tasmania has two prongs - on one hand the debate is about how to manage the wild herd in wilderness areas and keep the numbers down.

On the other hand, it's about whether that resource can be monetized, or if it can be commercialised into an industry.

Mr Frydrych said they were two distinct things and the government needed to strike the right balance to meet the needs of all stakeholders.

"When I bought this farm 10 years ago, I didn't in my wildest dreams imagine this would be the debate we'd be involved with," he said.

The state government is reviewing the community consultation and feedback from the draft Wild Fallow Deer Management Strategy as well as considering a report it commissioned into the viability of a commercial wild-shot deer industry.

Commercialisation of wild-shot deer is not something Primary Industries Minister Guy Barnett has committed to, but he has committed to investigating a small-scale trial.

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