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Milk was the most stable food which places milk and thus the peasant’s cow at the heart of the original Faroese economy.
Issue Date: 4/26/2021
Item No.: PPA020421
Value: 34,00
Cattle Farming in the Faroe Islands
The Faroese Cow and the Stability of the
Peasant Economy
Peasant communities spend a lot of work
securing their short-term survival. Hunger must be kept away under all
conditions. In the Faroese peasant household, the tradition was to keep a
storage of food for one year if possible, but sometimes this presented
challenges in the changeable Faroese climate. Much attention was therefore paid
to the quantity and stability of food in the natural economy of the farming
community before sea fishing and money economy became the basis of Faroese
society. A 1999 study of food composition with figures from 1813 shows that
cow's milk accounted for about 45% of daily energy intake. In addition, milk
was the most stable food which places milk and thus the peasant’s cow at the
heart of the original Faroese economy.
The Cow and the Infield
The cow turns grass into dairy food. This
made grass the most important crop in the Faroese coastal farming community. In
spring, summer and autumn the cow could graze in the field, but in the winter
months it was kept in the stable. It was therefore necessary to keep enough hay
on hand to keep the cow alive until spring. The cattle feed, denoting the
amount of hay needed for one cow over there winter, therefore became essential.
It was also a widely used as a unit of measurement for land acreage.
Around the village houses in the fenced-in
infield lay the drained, cultivated and terrace-shaped topsoil offering
possibilities of such vigorous grass growth that sufficient hay could be
harvested for the cattle feed. But good grass growth requires soil cultivation,
and more importantly the soil also needs ample fertilizer. Here, too, the cow
proved indispensable, for stabling during winter made it possible to collect
nutrient-rich cow manure and store it in the dunghill until spring arrived.
Mixed with supplementary fertilizer, for example seaweed, the peasant thus
avoided exhausting his topsoil.
Grain was also grown in the infield. This
took place in rotational operations, where grain was sown in some areas, while
in others hay was produced. The topsoil, however, only needed processing and
fertilizing prior to the grain production. The soil was worked thoroughly
manually with the traditional shovel. First, workers carried the cow dung on
their backs out onto the field and sprinkled it on top of the terrace-shaped
lawns. A narrow strip of soil was cut from the lower edge of the terrace and
laid out in an inch-thick layer on top of the manure. It was then finely
divided and the seed sprinkled evenly on the soil. Then the soil layer was
thumped together with a plate fitted on a shaft. After the grain harvest, the
soil was sufficiently fertilized for the production of grass and hay to last
for the next 5-6 years. The infield soil was thus worked and fertilized in a
cycle where the cow became an essential production link, enabling fertilization
and food security at the same time in a relatively stable economy.
The stamp shows the head of a cow and the
infield cycle in the background surrounded by fertilizer and the yield of
grain, hay and milk.
The Cow in the Stable
Cows in stable during winter had to be
watered, fed and milked, and the manure had to be mucked out to the dunghill.
Ordinarily, all this stable work had to be done by the women on the farm. The
men, however, usually took over when the cow was to be mounted by the bull.
Calving was preferably planned for spring when good grazing became available.
The calves that were not to be used for domestic purposes were soon
slaughtered. The new born calf’s fourth stomach was then hung to dry and stored
as it contains rennet which was used to separate milk into solid curds for
cheesemaking. Until the 1970s, many Faroese families had a cow in the basement
of their houses. Often one could estimate the children's state of health when
the family’s cow had calved and fresh milk was again available in the
household.
The stamp shows the classic motif: a woman
milking the cow in the stable.
The
Cow in the Outfield
Domestic cattle (Bos taurus) are
common farm animals all over the world. The original Faroese species was small
and short-legged, but it is now extinct. The cattle were robust and accustomed
to grazing on steep slopes, coping well up in the mountains in changeable weather
conditions. Often, due to shortage of winter fodder, the cows were gaunt and
lacking in strength in spring. But they recovered quickly in the rich grassy
fields and were in excellent shape come autumn.
In summer, and as long as the cold, wind
and rain allowed, the cows grazed in the fields, in mountain slopes or close to
the village. This meant that during summer milkmaids had to walk outside the
village fences twice a day, locate the cows, milk them and carry the milk home.
The stamp shows a typical Faroese cow and
bull in the field as they would have been seen in the late 1800s, when they
gradually mixed with foreign breeds.
Ole
Wich