Hemnes is one of the largest agricultural communities in Northern Norway. It has a significant production of sheep, pigs, beef and dairy products. Today a new generation of young people has taken over many family farms, making investments to further modernise their operations and optimise their production. Since 2006, more than 170 million kroner has been invested in new farm buildings in Hemnes, as much as for the whole of Troms and Finnmark combined.
There are over 30 sheep farms in Hemnes, which together have a total of 4500 sheep in the winter and almost twice as many when the lambs are counted in the spring. During the summer, the local sheep population is almost twice as large as the total number of pigs, cows, goats, horses and chickens combined.
The livestock play a significant role in maintaining the lush hand beautiful cultural landscape that you see throughout the Okstindan Nature & Culture Park.
One of the municipality’s major employers is the Nortura slaughterhouse at Bjerka, which established its operations here in 2008.
The watercolour shown below was painted by Hilde Strand. It portrays the finest lamb of Hemnes in 2017 – as chosen by the jury of all our district’s preschool children.
