– It is not the easiest job. It’s easier to quit and get an eight-to-four job, says Anne Skartveit. She is a sheep farmer and runs Fjellam from Ryfylke, a cooperative for 27 farmers who will get lamb meat from mountain pastures for people’s tables. And less lamb will be slaughtered this autumn than we have had on the table in recent years. This is shown by figures from Nortura, which has slightly more than 60 per cent of Norwegian meat production. Anne Skarveit, here from when she picked up her sheep in Røldal this autumn. Photo: Privat Tal news has received from Animalia, which oversees all Norwegian meat production, shows that towards the end of September 56,000 fewer lambs were slaughtered in Norway than at the same time last year. The Nation has also written about the case. Too much five years ago Nortura expects more slaughter at the beginning of October, but 2022 will probably end with less lamb meat than previous years. Because there are fewer sheep. – There are several who have reduced and some who have stopped using sheep, says Finn Avdem, specialist manager for small cattle at Nortura. The situation is completely turned on its head. In 2017, Norway had over 3,000 tonnes of sheep and lamb in stock. One year later, the warehouse was still large. Then came the corona pandemic, and no one shopped in Sweden. Then the Norwegian meat warehouses were empty. Large surpluses and the corona pandemic have “taught” Norwegian consumers to use more lamb. That’s how many sheep and lambs we have. All figures are in millions of kilos. 1959: 15.1 1969: 18.3 1979: 22.4 1989: 24.9 1999: 23.5 2019: 24.4 2020: 25.7 2021: 25.9 (The figure does not include cross-border trade, and comes from the Directorate of Health ). Whether the number of sheep will mean that there is less lamb in the shops than people want to buy is too early to say. Avdem in Nortura is not worried about a deficit in lamb meat, and he says the pork production until Christmas will be secure. He is happy with the situation right now. – There is a good market balance now, and we would like the capacity to continue, he says. – High threshold to start again Skarveit does not want to return to what she calls overproduction five years ago, but says the sheep is important for Norway to look the way we are used to. – The sheep do an enormous job of keeping the forest down, she says. Figures from Animalia show that by the end of September, 56,000 fewer lambs had been slaughtered in Norway than the previous year. Photo: Ole Andreas Bø / news It doesn’t cost a lot of money to have sheep, and sheep farmers, like everyone else, have noticed that most things become more expensive. If the development continues, she thinks it may be difficult to reverse it. – If you have stopped with sheep first, I think the threshold is high to start again, she says. Nortura, for its part, expects an increase in lamb slaughter at the beginning of October. The slaughter is slightly delayed compared to previous years. It probably has to do with grazing, according to Avdem in Nortura. Many farmers let the lambs eat a little more and get a little fatter before they become mutton cabbage or lamb roast. – In many open fields, there have not been optimal grazing conditions. As a result, many farmers will finish feeding the lambs a little before delivering them for slaughter, he says, who believes that the production of stick meat until Christmas will be saved by the October slaughter. Nortura has more than 60 percent of the Norwegian slaughter and meat production market. The other Norwegian livestock are made into food in some other, larger companies and several smaller ones. Photo: Ole Andreas Bø / news
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