Long winter leads to critical shortage of hay in most parts of country

Agriculture, cows, Hindus Religion gelatin husbandryAgriculture, cows. Photo: Norway Today Media

The long winter has led farmers in large parts of southern Norway to run out of hay, thus leading to a critical food shortage for livestock.

 

‘’Spring will arrive abnormally late this year. This, combined with less mowing,means less crops, and poor quality last year have led to a shortage of hay’’, said Secretary General, Per Skorge, of the Norwegian Farmer’s Union, (Norges Bondelag) to NRK news.

Especially in western and southern Norway, last year’s crops were so bad that the farmers bought up much of the hay in eastern Norway. As a result, the high price in Oslo and Akershus has tripled from two to three kroner per kilo to eight or nine kroner.

“There’s no more hay to get here in the area. We are afraid that the animals will not get food, and we have to find alternatives. Now the plan is to collect as much as we can and start producing a little even this year,” said Line Digerud Waagsaas at Søndre Digerud farm in Akershus to NRK.

Several farmers are in the same situation. One of them is Stian Syversen from Nordtveit farm in Oslo, who came close to shutting down the entire operation.

“After calling round, we finally managed to get hay that allowed us to continue.

I think that elsewhere, farmers may be forced to shut down cow and horse farms,”he said.

 

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today