Raising sheep in the shadow mountain meadows

The village Signabøur is located on the southern slope by the fjord Kollafjørður on the island of Streymoy. The steep north-facing mountain slopes mean that being in the village you would not see the sun in the middle of the winter and the whole mountain slope receives no direct sun light in the middle of the winter.
The lack of direct sunlight gives some special challenges and opportunities to the farmer, Dorthea Joensen, who runs the farm Signabøgarður with her husband and family. They have run the farm as a family business for many generations and have learned how to raise sheep in the shadow mountain meadows.
The Signabøgarður-farm is about 5,4 km2 reaching from sea level to the mountain of Kaldbakskambur 588 meters above the sea. The farm has a value of 6 merkur according to the ancient land value system which is still in use.
In the spring, the north-facing mountain slope, which is in total shadow during the middle of the winter, suffers from slow and late spring growth. The farmers need to feed the sheep more and for a longer time than most other farmers.
The land of the farm is steep in many places and sometimes so difficult to reach that it can only be reached by boat. To productively use all the land, the farmers put special effort into selecting sheep that in a natural way chose to live in the various places throughout the farm.
In the autumn the benefit of the location on the north facing mountain slopes is evident. The grass that was so slow to begin growing the spring now continues growing late into the fall, providing the sheep on the mountain slopes with fresh grass until the time of slaughter. The fresh autumn grass from the north-facing slopes is good for the sheep, and the mutton that will be produced on the farm gets a special and good quality.