Text: Per Ering Bakke

Adapted and translated into English by Ivar Teigum

The first cooperative slaughterhouse in the Gudbrandsdalen valley started its production at Otta in 1953. No longer would livestock be sent to the cooperative in Oslo by train. For a time the change represented the end of free trade in this commercial area.

The shareholding company Gudbrandsdal Slaughterhouse was established in 1950. In April 1953 the first lorryload of oxen was delivered at Otta.

The support from farmers was strong already from the beginning, particularly in the upper part of Gudbrandsdalen.

A large part of the processed products was sold outside the district, but also to local customers, such as local people, hotels, and shops all over the valley.

“Where the quality products come from.” Soon after the start the slaughterhouse opened its own shop focusing on the local origin of the products for sale.

The slaughterhouse soon employed forty people, and up to 17 more during the high season in the autumn. That was when the sheep were back from the mountains, and mutton was in demand.

A fact typical of the times, however, was that the slaughterhouse provided no treatment of the waste, but sent it into the river giving the stream of water a disagreeable colour and smell.

Entering a merge of the cooperative slaughterhouses in the two counties Hedmark and Oppland, time was ripe in the 1970s for new investments at Otta, and a new slaughterhouse was built outside the centre.

The previous slaughterhouse was thoroughly renovated to become a modern and functional administration building, which was officielly opened in 1979.