About thirty cattle farmers gathered this Wednesday in the mountain of Llessui, in the Pallars Sobirà (Lleida), to collect the cattle and return them home.
Ranchers from Pallars, Cerdanya, Berguedà, Ripollès or Solsonès bring their animals to Llessui due to the characteristics of its mountain.
The meeting point is at the cowboy's cabin and from there they travel across the mountain to gather more than 1,500 cows at a single point. There, each rancher chooses his animals and takes them to his farm by truck or on foot. Currently only 5% of livestock farmers carry out transhumance on foot.
They assure that the season has been good and that they have not had to suffer from the drought and lack of grass in the mountains.
Having to advance the withdrawal of the animals, due to lack of food in the mountains, would have meant a transfer for the ranchers and a considerable economic cost. Some regretted the progress, considering that with temperatures above average at this time and with grass still on the mountain, the animals could have been there for another week.
First thing in the morning, all the ranchers with animals in the mountains meet in the cowboy's cabin, at about 2,000 meters above sea level. There, Albert Baqueró, the person responsible for caring for all the animals for almost four months, gives instructions to the ranchers and distributes them by areas. With small groups they travel the entire mountain so that no animal is left alone and they lead them to a specific point.
With the more than 1,500 animals together on an esplanade, they are taken down to a parking lot, next to the town of Llessui, where the trucks are waiting for them to return home.
The Llessui mountain also hosts more than 4,500 sheep from a dozen farmers during the summer months. These flocks are grouped together at the beginning of July and it is a shepherd who is in charge of taking care of the flock. The selection of the sheep took place on September 30.
