19. The Dairy Cows

The dairy cow is the most important domestic animal – it provides meat but above all milk, a vital food in an age without refrigerators. In older times, almost all farms – even the smallest ones – had at least one cow and a few chickens for self-sufficiency. Some larger farms have room for more extensive animal husbandry, for example, Norrbygård has around thirty dairy cows. After the Second World War, the development of agriculture progresses rapidly. Farmers begin to invest in milking machines and tractors, but traditional manual working methods remain alive in our villages right up to the 1950s. The dairy cow is a mainstay in agriculture and an important source of income for many farms. In 1979, Märta Olsson, on the farm behind Bergby School, received a gold medal after delivering flawless milk for 23 years. From 1939 to 1979, she never had a vacation from the animals and carried at least 280 liters of water per day to the cows on her own.

The weather is important for dairy farmers and in 1943 a farm in Norrby became a weather observer for SMHI. To this day, the farm reports daily precipitation – which means that there are over 80 years of continuous weather data from Norrby. The average precipitation during 1943–2005 is 594 mm/year. The highest precipitation is the rainy year 1960 with 840 mm. The record dry year is 1947 with only 355 mm, but 1955 and 1959 are also very dry (the so-called wasp summers).

During the 2000s, profitability for dairy farmers deteriorated. More and more were forced to close their operations. At the turn of the year 2013/14, the last dairy cows disappeared. Today, only horses and beef cattle remain in Norrby, but traces of the village’s long history in dairy production still remain.