Construction boom among farmers

Farm.Photo: Thomas Brun / NTB scanpix

Optimism among Norwegian farmers is one of the reasons why the construction of new barns and stables in the past year has increased by 25 percent.

It is the largest building activity in six years.
– I would call it a result of a political mix in parliament. Seven of the eight rural settlements under the coalition were good. The best came last year.

The coalition has lifted the ceiling for some concessions, including for chicken, and they have moved subsidies sizes from small to large ones, says Reidar Almås of Integrated Research to the newspaper Nationen.

A billion in cuts not done

In the last three years the agricultural policies of FRP, have made 1 billion NOK in cuts to subsidies, but not implemented anything.

It creates optimism, in addition, the prospects of low interest rates for a long time to come, so it’s easier to get finances in order, Almaas said.

new construction

Over the past year, farmers across the country built nearly 668,000 square meters of new buildings for farming. In monetary terms, it amounts to buildings and equipment for about 4.5 billion NOK in the last year. This figure is nearly 1 billion more than the year before.

Almås thinks growth in construction activity will continue. He points out that many of the dairy barns were built in the 1970s.

 

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