Sheep farmer got 2 Euro cent per kilo

Sheep farmer Mountain, Animal Husbandry MaediGrazing Sheep. Photo: Pixabay.com

A sheep farmer in Levanger got 2 Euro cent per kilo

The consumers do not care for sheep meat. Everybody wants lamb. Sheep farmer Bjørn Pettersen from Slengen in Levanger is paid NOK four for one sheep.

 

Last settlement from the Nortura slaughterhouse in Malvik shows that the sheep farmer was paid NOK 315 for a total of 25 animals.

– On average, I was paid a meat price of between NOK four and five per sheep, says Bjørn Pettersen to Trønder-Avisa.

That equates to 2 Euro cent (19 øre) per kilo.

He believes the low price is due to focus on lamb meat, that is, animals younger than one year. Thus, there is an excess of slaughtered adult sheep.

Sheep-in-cabbage

Pettersen tells the newspaper that there was a mistake made 40 years ago when old sheep were used for the Norwegian traditional “sheep-in-cabbage” (fårikål) dish. This gave an overwhelming flavour to the food, and the consumer does not forget that so easily.

According to consultant in Nortura Bjørn Wæhre, there have been few attempts to introduce products based on adult animals. Nortura was recently ready to launch a fricassee, but the grocery chains turned their thumbs down to the idea.

Currently, there are 1,400 metric ton of frozen sheep in storage. The Sales Council has taken action to deal with the situation. Some of which is intended used as animal feed.

In addition to the price from the slaughterhouse, the farmer receives a basic supplement of NOK 2.70, an operating grant of NOK 4.95 and an organic supplement of NOK 1.00 per kilo meat, adding up to NOK 8.84 in this case.

Cabbage-in-Sheep (Fårikål) is a traditional Norwegian dish. Photo:  Coop Norway

Traditional ”sheep-in-cabbage” (Serves 4)

2-2,5 kg meat on the bone from lamb (or not to old sheep)
2 kg Cabbage
3 tablespoons whole black pepper
Cumin to taste (optional)
2 teaspoons salt
Ca 300 ml water

Preparation

  1. Place about half of the meat with the fatty side down in a large pot.
  2. Divide the cabbage into wedges and put one layer over the meat. Sprinkle with salt, cumin and black pepper. Repeat until you have placed all the meat and cabbage in the casserole.
  3. Pour the water into the pan and bring to the boil under a lid. Turn the heat down and allow the meat to steam, keeping the lid on for two to three hours. When the meat loosens from the bones, the dish is ready.
  4. Serve the dish with boiled potatoes, cranberry jam and sauce from the bottom of the pot.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today

 

1 Comment on "Sheep farmer got 2 Euro cent per kilo"

  1. Etta McFadden | 16. October 2018 at 17:44 |

    OMG you cannot even get your feed cost back at those terrible prices. In Canada we are facing same basic problems as result of our ongoing draught literally no feed available for winter. Pastures all stripped to dust in summer this year. Livestock producers and even ‘pleasure’ owners being forced to send everything to sales receiving little. If anything for their animals. I worry aboUT decision to use sheep backlog in animal feed products. This was a factor in ‘Mad Cow Disease’ epidemic. Suggestion to get sheep back in better demand. Perhaps some nutritionists and livestock producer groups (one in Canada is Manitoba Pork Producers) could focus on creating some more recipes for sheep rather than lamb right now. Could renew some of market interest. Several years ago here Manitoba Pork was able to get short slots on a midday news program showing different ‘meal recipes’ that they had developed. Also distributed little 10 page booklets many distributed in grocery meat departments over pork areas.
    I really feel for this poor man what a terrible thing to have occur. These animals are our income!!!

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