Only three months after 200 head of cattle were killed in a fire on the Staerri-Árskógur dairy and cattle farm near Dalvík, destroying the cowshed and barn, milk is being produced there again. The milk truck came calling yesterday, for the first time since November.
“It is fantastic to have the old routine back; the milk truck driver arriving three times a week. I had missed not seeing him coming,” farmer Gudmundur Geir Jónsson told Fréttabladid.
Jónsson said rebuilding his cowshed in only three months would not have been possible without the group of people who had offered him their help. Many gave him cows. The farmer admitted he had considered giving up raising cattle at one point. “I thought I would go bankrupt. But then I worried that I would always regret not giving it another try.”
“The first female calf was born on Saturday and it will inaugurate the new calf shed next fall,” Jónsson said, adding that he is tired from all the work for the past few months, though he had not lost his optimism.
“I think positive things will happen with Icelandic agriculture in the next few years. […] Agricultural products are becoming a rarity in Europe and even luxury products, especially Icelandic products, because they are tantamount to organic or ecologically grown products in Europe,” Jónsson predicted.
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