– I woke up to my phone ringing because the fire alarm went off.
Solveig Bratteng Rønning was alone at home with her two daughters. The man Geir Ove and their son were on a trip, and now there was a fire in the barn that housed almost 200 animals.
The couple had moved to Utskarpen in 2010, approximately half an hour’s drive west of Mo i Rana, to take over the family farm. Within five years, they had upgraded the old barn into a state-of-the-art farm for milk and meat production.
– The summer of 2015 was a very good year for us. Then we had everything sorted out. And then the farm burned down in the autumn, says Solveig.
She remembers the animals that did not want to get out of the burning barn.
– It was dark outside, they were stressed and unsafe, and for them the barn was a safe place.
Solveig remembers the sparks that rose up against the home she shared with her husband and daughters…
…and the feeling of giving up the fight against the flames.
– It was like a war zone the morning after the fire. Some bulls were grazing, there were people everywhere, fire crews trying to put out the fire. Everything was broken.
Nevertheless, Solveig and Geir Ove had already decided what the next step was. They had to rebuild the farm, for several reasons.
HEAVY: Solveig Bratteng Rønning and father Karl Hans Rønning lost the entire farm through four generations in the barn fire in Utskarpen in Mo i Rana in 2015.
Photo: Frank Nygård / NRK
– The district needs the farms
Firstly, it was about Solveig and Geir Ove’s personal dedication.
– Being a farmer is not a normal 9-16 job. It’s so all-consuming. At the same time, it’s so much fun, she says.
The couple had also built up a lot of knowledge in the years before the fire, and they had many good helpers around them.
One of them is Solveig’s sister, Elise Bratteng Rønning.
She has also moved to Utskarpen. Together with her husband, chef Marius, she runs the restaurant and hotel Til Elise from Marius.
She gets many of the raw materials from Solveig at Sletten farm.
And the collaboration has now led to Solveig starting to breed a very special type of meat.
PUSHING EACH OTHER: It was the collaboration with her sister Elise (left) that led Solveig to try to breed wagyu cows in Utskarpen.
Photo: Lars Petter Kalkenberg / NRK
– It started with me asking Marius what he thought would be cool to work with, and he answered wagyu.
For those of you who don’t know: Wagyu is a Japanese breed of cattle, known for the finest meat you can get. The fat marbling is completely different to normal beef, which gives a much fuller taste.
– So we ordered wagyu semen and inseminated some of our cows with it, and did quite well.
Wilma Wagyu is an example of that. She is 75 percent wagyu.
Recently, Solveig and Geir Ove sent the first wagyu animals to slaughter.
– It’s just a fun side project. But it is things like this that are exciting about being a farmer.
But not as many are tempted by life on the farm.
SOON ON THE LEVEL AGAIN: Solveig Bratteng Rønning and her husband are almost back on the same level as they were when the farm burned down in 2015.
Photo: Lars Petter Kalkenberg / NRK
Serious for Norwegian agriculture
Figures from Statistics Norway shows that the number of farms in Norway is still falling.
In Rogaland, every fifth farmer fears that their farm will be shut down within 15 years.
At the same time as the number of farms decreases, the number of cattle, for example, remains stable.
It is in line with the shift within agriculture, with larger and fewer farms. Some believe it is more effective.
But there is a limit to how big the farms can be, according to Bjørn Egil Flø, researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy (NIBIO).
– And I believe that we have met that limit now, he says.
The researcher believes, among other things, that the advantages of scale disappear when the farms become too large, and the distances between the patches of land become too long.
– Then it becomes so-called tire and diesel farming, where they get a poorer overview of the crops due to a lot of transport. In addition, modern agriculture is advanced professional work. When there are fewer farmers, the important professional communities disappear.
And we are dependent on the farmers, for several reasons, we are to believe Bjørn Egil Flø.
NEW BARN: This is what the new barn at Sletten farm looks like.
Photo: Lars Petter Kalkenberg / NRK
The villages need the farmers
– The most obvious ripple effect agriculture provides is producing food. In recent years, we have seen more and more examples of the importance of having relatively local food production, he says, and points, for example, to the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
– But we also see that modern farming ensures work for a great many people.
Electricians, plumbers, service people who can fix the equipment on the farms, and shops that sell goods to the farmers. Everyone earns on active farms, according to Flø.
In the end, it’s about well-being.
– Having people in the village during the day is very, very important. It ensures that people can talk to each other, that you can have meeting places and that there is life in the village also during the day, says Flø.
And although the job is demanding, Solveig Bratteng Rønning in Utskarpen believes that there is hope for Norwegian agriculture.
POSSIBLE TO COMBINE: 9 out of 10 farmers combine their work as a farmer with another job. Researcher at NIBIO, Bjørn Egil Flø, believes it is important to make arrangements so that farmers can have two jobs at the same time, in order to keep agriculture going.
Photo: Private
She is a board member of Tine, and their representative on the board of the Norges Bondelag. In order to get more people to choose agriculture as a career path, she believes a lot is about economics.
One thing is framework conditions that provide some security for farmers, so that they are guaranteed income, also if this year’s crop is destroyed by the weather, or something unforeseen happens to the animals.
But most importantly:
– We have to make sure that the Norwegian customer chooses Norwegian food, says Solveig, who has faith that there are people who will take over from her.
– This job is so complex and challenging. You must constantly learn new things and deal with such primary things as weather and season, and work from the animals’ premises. It is a profession for many people, as long as we get paid for it.
Listen to the podcast about Solveig and life as a farmer in Utskarpen here:
2023-09-10 05:53:33
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