life in the farm

In the farm live about 70 cows plus bulls and calves, a few sheep, two dogs and one cat. The farmer of course as well. Mari, a Finnish woman is here already for the ninth winter to help him. She decided to dedicate her life to cows when she was five years old. Now is here also Claire from France who stays for two weeks and cycled around Iceland before coming here. She knows everything about Icelandic wind.

Cows are milked and fed twice a day. We share mornings with Claire, one morning one of us gets to sleep longer and next morning the other one. Milking takes the most time and eight cows are milked at once. The fence lets a cow into the milking station and leads into a free box. The rest of the animals watch how it goes. The new cow first has to be sprayed with water to clean udder and hoofs. Then dry the udder with a cloth. Next it is necessary to try if normal-looking milk comes out of every teat and connect the cow with milking machine. When the udder is empty, the pump drops, gate opens and the cow walks away. From the number around the neck of the cow the machine understands which cow it is, keeps track of its milk amount and possible flaws or special features. Like that from four teats only two work. The last cows have to be pushed out of manure to come in.

Later the whole room has to be splashed with water, the milking machine rinsed, some milk taken to the calves, manure cleaned away and fussed with hay. For fussing with hay there is a small tractor and most of the manure is collected by a device that moves along the floor. On hay a big yellow cat mews and in from of the tractor run dogs Týra and Þruma.

The milk is taken away twice a week. It goes to a local diary factory.

In the middle of the day is free time to eat, chat, read and wander around in the neighborhood.