Alpine Farming in Finailhof

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In Finailhof, the flock grazes around the farm during wintertime and they graze freely during the spring and summer seasons.

 

‘The tree line ends around 2000 meters, and we can see only cattle grazing around this altitude also because farms are located around 1500-1700 meters above sea level. The grassland around farms is rich in nutrients because of the manure of the cattle and they can only graze around and inside the fences. Also, they support forest soil with agro-pastoral systems. Sheep and goats shape the landscape; 50 years ago, there were 50% more sheep in the valley, and when they graze, Larix decidua and Pinus cembra can’t grow in the grazing areas, but during past years, sheep have decreased, and the forest layer has increased because of less grazing activity.’

Shepherd Manni

 

In Finailhof, shepherd Manni implements the free grazing method for his sheep and goat flock. Finailhof is a historical farm since 1290 but there was human activity from the Stone Age. So, we can understand that alpine farming and grazing have been done here for thousands of years. There are 24 farms around Lake of Vernago and each farm has its own animals (sheep, goats, cattle) Shepherd Manni let his flocks graze randomly inside the Finail Valley and the forest, and they graze on their own. When the weather is bad the animals return to their farms by themselves. None of the groups of sheep and goats mix with their own group, and they graze each other Also they don’t mix with the other farms' animal groups. The valley and the high mountains act like a wall and natural fence, so each farm belongs to a valley, and they have their own grazing area. This system creates a well-connected ecosystem service. Goats can eat thorn bushes, and they search for any kind of grassland, but sheep need clean grass that they can graze higher than 2500 meters (Shepherd Mani). The tree line ends around 2000 meters after the last larch tree, and we can see only cattle grazing around this altitude also because farms are located around 1500-1700 meters above sea level. The grassland around farms is rich of nutrients because of the manure of the cattle, and they can only graze around and inside the fences also they support to forest soil with agro-pastoral systems.

 

‘Goats can eat thorn bushes, and they search for any kind of grassland, but sheep need clean grass’

 Shepherd Manni

 

Each farm divides its sheep from the other farms, and sheep know where to pick so shepherds just let them graze. Sheep can go to much higher and from the beginning of transhumance in June to the end of September, they will graze around 3000 meters to search for fresh grasses and plant species. They don’t like hot weather conditions and they also graze during the night. In Mediterranean regions, shepherds bring their sheep for grazing during night under the stars. Sheep are more sensitive than goats, but both animals have their own functions. They look slow but during the whole day, they climb almost 1000 meters to search the best grazing areas.  They understand their grazing areas from their instincts that goats go to the highest grassland that they don’t affected from hot weather a lot but sheep has a layers of wools that if their wools won’t be cutting from their shepherds, they would prefer to go high to more cool weathers, but cutted sheep can stay lower altitudes with sheep. Sheep can go higher parts up on the rocky surfaces to find edible species, but rockfall is another danger for sheep; many of them die because of rockfall each year. The type of grazing depends on altitude each 100 meters can have different species. Also, the melting route of the glaciers changes the soil seed banks, and they transport the seeds from higher altitudes to the lower valley. Thus, the lower level has richer mineral soil with animal manure. Sheep can decide their own grazing sites. If the valley and surface have no evidence of erosion of snow or rain, then the soil is rich in species. These areas are good for goats also because bushes can hold onto the ground, and goats prefer to eat the flowers of bushes first. The valley and steep slopes have evidence of erosion thus, the sheep prefer to graze clean grasslands. This knowledge of shepherds can help them to follow their animals. Reading the landscape needs ecological and historical knowledge of the area where they can catch their animals, If needed.  Shepherds allow sheep to become actors. It’s hard to say that any actor has the strongest impact, but each actor holistically lives in equilibrium. Humans shape the landscape, but also from an anthropological point of view, the sheep know their farm to return to, or they eat the grasses of the alpine pasture. Sheep also give birth during winter. Less mother sheep give birth during summer pasture.

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Sheep did not prefer thorny species such as goats, they were extremely picky about fresh grass. The sun and weather were the biggest factors for the movements of the sheep. They moved when it was cloudy and grazed where they were when the sun came out. For goats, the situation was different.  They can graze at lower altitudes and eat almost any plant. The next morning, I started to note the movement and grazing times of the sheep and what landscape character they grazed in and gave names to the areas where they grazed.  The sheep sleep on the highest hill at night, and with the first light of the morning, they continue their way by every path they find, and graze scattered on the steep cliffs. The leading sheep continued its way, eating the fresh grasses that came across it, and the flock that followed was following the leading one. They rested and grazed on the small plains between the cliffs and circled vertically on a large scale. Although they are very slow, they can descend to the valley bed on high hills in a few hours.  They take almost one tour in a day from where they are and repeat this route every day and they don’t graze where they’ve already grazed. With the warming of the weather, the circular and vertical grazing routes shift parallel to higher altitudes, and they eat the fresh grasses at higher altitudes. Their routes, which I observed at the beginning of June, differed at the end of July, but their behavior and adaptation to the topography remained the same.

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The air smelled of soil after a fresh rain in the morning. I set off from Tisenhof, where I had stayed the previous day. The sheep of transhumance were visible, and thousands of bells were ringing in the valley of Vernago. After breakfast with cheese made by the shepherd and eggs given by the chickens in the morning, I set out for Finailhof on the road accepted as the archeological path. While my eyes searched for sheep and goats on the highest peaks, my ear was focused on the sound of sheep bells deep in the forest. After a two-hour hike, I finally reached the Finailhof, where I would meet with the shepherd. I needed to find him on the farm before I chose a campground for myself for the next weeks, and I headed straight to the barn. Suddenly, he noticed me and stopped to ask about my role in his barn. His name was Mani, and I told him that I would make a map of the sheep routes in the Finail Valley for the next six weeks. We had a short conversation in Italian, and he said that he was volunteering to help me because he had a problem with the veterinarian during the winter months and political problems about wolves and the ecosystem.  I determined my camping area at the forest border, just behind the farm. The ground where I was staying had high-nutrient dominant species. Thus, Rumex acetosa, Rumex obtusifolus, and Alchemilla xanthochroid were the first visible species around my camping site.  The area smelled of dung as it was the area where the cattle grazed. I excitedly prepared to observe the hills as far away as my camera could see and plot the routes of the sheep. Some sheep were visible, but it was hard to determine their way. The next morning, we met with the shepherd Manni to go up, and he goes up every three or five days to see the condition of the sheep. In previous years, he had controlled his sheep every week because there weren’t any wolves. For the rest of the time, the sheep graze independently in the valley and the steep slopes. Then, they create a pattern of grazing in the grassland. This was the first indication that sheep charted their paths. After the winter months are over, the sheep go up to the hills to find fresh pastures. They first start from the forest on the west side of the farm and go down to the valley plain in April. Then they reach the forest on the Eastern front and from there to the higher altitudes.

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The family's entire work schedule is planned according to these two economic incomes. Although the fire in the accommodation house in the winter of 2021 damaged the family financially and morally, they have already started rebuilding it. The Finailhof farm is actively used because the family operates the 4 pieces of 800-year-old wooden   structures. It was built side by side as a main building, guest house, and cattle and sheep pen. Manni wakes up at 5 a.m., milks the cattle, and takes them out to the grazing area while his sons David and Daniel help him. While the newborn sheep graze in the wooden fenced area adjacent to the farm, tourists who walk come to Finailhof at the first light of the morning. Vroni and the employees collect their vegetables from the vegetable garden in the southern part of the farm and enter the kitchen. At that time, Manni looks for his sheep at higher altitudes with his binoculars and checks whether they have started grazing. He opens the wooden gates in the parts of the valley up to the farm border and drives the cattle to a wider area to graze. During the day, Manni drives down to Vernago and Val Venosta to market his produce, while the other family members on the farm take care of the cleaning, cooking and gardening of the farm. Living in the same cycle for 12 months, the family keeps their herd of animals in the pen next door during the winter months, while in the summer they focus more on agritourism, independent of their herd. The policy of the mountain farms in South Tyrol in the 1970s created a secure environment where alpine farms could be paid directly and sell their produce. Since then, the declining transhumance has opened up a new economic opportunity through mountain tourism and agritourism. Today, all members of the Finailhof live on the farm for 12 months thanks to this movement and are of great importance in preserving the ecosystem of the region.

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