Pasture and transhumance: the breeds

Up the mountain and back

In the Alps the herd goes up in June, sometimes in stages, through middle pastures to the high alp, and comes down again in September. Herders stay on the alp all summer, milking, making butter and cheese, and moving the cattle from one grazing area to the next. The return to the valley is a festival in many villages, with flowers and bells for the herd and food, music and markets for people. Pyrenean and Carpathian villages keep similar customs.

The Sahel and the Niger

Across the Sahel, Fulani herders move zebu herds north into the grasslands at the start of the rains and south toward rivers and farmland in the dry season. The routes are long and old, and depend on agreements with farmers along the way. At Diafarabé in Mali, herders bring their cattle back across the Niger at the end of the rains in a crossing with contests, poetry and celebration, known as the Yaaral and Degal.

Droving routes

Before railways and lorries, cattle walked to market. In Spain, the cañadas reales, the royal drove roads, were protected for centuries for the movement of livestock, and some are still walked each year. In Britain, Scottish drovers walked cattle south to English markets. In the United States, trail drives took Texas cattle north to the railheads of Kansas. In Australia, drovers took herds along stock routes such as the Canning Stock Route in the Western Desert.

The Himalaya

In the Himalaya, many herding families move between winter villages and summer pastures. The Brokpa of Merak and Sakteng in eastern Bhutan move their yak and cattle between high and low pastures through the year. In Ladakh, herders on the Changthang move yak with sheep and goats across the plateau. Lower in the hills, farming families take cattle to forest pastures for the monsoon and bring them back to the village before winter.

Worth knowing

• Alpabzug and désalpe: The return from the alp in Switzerland and Austria
• Yaaral and Degal: The cattle crossing of the Niger at Diafarabé
• Cañadas reales: The old drove roads of Spain
• Chisholm Trail: Texas cattle drives to Kansas
• Canning Stock Route: Droving route across the Western Australian desert
• Brokpa herders: Yak and cattle herders of eastern Bhutan

Sources and further reading

• Transhumance on Wikipedia
• Cañada Real, Wikipedia
• Canning Stock Route, Wikipedia