The Carpathian Mountains are very close to my city. There has always been a tradition of keeping large flocks of sheep. Now, of course, these flocks of sheep are very few, but they still exist. People identify among themselves the shepherds who drive all the sheep from the whole village to the highlands to the meadow. There they graze them all season, milk them and make cheese. I once tasted this cheese, it was very salty and with a characteristic taste. I can't say that I liked him.
At the end of the season, the shepherds drive the sheep back to the village and share the cheese with the owners. Shepherds take part of the cheese for themselves, this is their salary.
Of course, such a business is now in decline. Some go to tourism, some find work in the city and leave. However, the last time I went hiking in the mountains, I still met flocks of sheep.
And for what purpose do you keep sheep? For wool?
Thank you very much for this interesting insight into the work of the Carpathian shepherds!
There the sheep's habitat is still natural and they can wear out their claws on their own.
Sigh - what a beautiful "sheep idyll", what a beautiful task for the shepherds. Too bad that our profit-oriented society drives so much idealism further and further away.
We keep milk sheep and make cheese. Our cheese is very mild and extremely tasty... ;-)
The rams are "unfortunately" meat sheep. Often you hear in the barn when a very nice lamb is developing its character, "Oh what a shame, it's a buck."
Of course, all sheep are also shorn. But wool prices are totally down: sorting and washing the wool costs more money than you get for the quantity. So we give it away to hobby spinners and people who make long-term compost from it.
I was surprised to learn that there are a huge number of different types of cheese made from sheep's milk. The cheese I tasted is very traditional. This is exactly the cheese that is prepared on the meadow during the summer season, and then given to sheep owners. It's called Budz.
There are several other types of cheese, which are generally called "Brindza". There are other cheeses that I can't remember.
I am sure that among this variety of cheeses there are very tasty, just as I am sure that your cheese is also very tasty :)
Before the war, we in Ukraine had a steady tendency to reduce the number of households. The reason, of course, is money. A man who had two cows, a horse, two pigs and a dozen chickens could eat very well, but he had no money to build a house, pay for children's education or buy a car. So people had to get a job. When you work five days a week, you can no longer afford to keep a lot of cattle. And when you get a normal salary, then you do not want to work at all :)
The system is designed so that a person who owns a cow and sells cheese, butter and milk cannot earn money even for feeding a cow. Prices for agricultural products are very low. At the same time, large farms with large investments are thriving.
I think I ate the "Brindza" many years ago in Poland. Old, poor ladies from the countryside sold it on the street. I didn't really like it. But I bought it two or three more times because I felt "sorry" for the women....
Yes, the described development in agriculture has also taken place in Germany - started decades ago, still going on. Sad. If you haven't found a good niche (mainly in organic farming), you can't live from your work as a small farmer anymore. And even if you do, it's only enough to survive, you can forget every little luxury.