Edited by IPC Prešov | Košice and Žilina Regions
Sheep farming
Country: Slovakia
Region: Košice Region
Type of inspiration: History
Inspiracja
Sheep breeding in Slovakia continues to this day. However, it has evolved over many years and each step has its own significance and charm. It began with people trying to provide enough food for the animals they kept. Gradually, however, it became a folk activity or even an occupation that sent people to the pastures with cattle and poultry.
In the past, village herders were mostly very poor people. They were paid a salary for their work and could have animals from several owners in their herd, which were separated from each other to return to the right yard at the end of the day. When the Wallachians came in, the nature of their work changed. In addition to herding, they also developed other crafts. Firstly, they had to take care of the animals, for example shearing sheep and making wool, milking milk and the associated production of cheese, curd or butter. They also mastered the craft of woodworking, which meant that they built their own pens, basketry, feeding troughs and other adaptations on the shepherds' huts.
Even today we can still find shepherds in our territory. They are men who live in seclusion in the countryside, with none of the conveniences of modern times in their lives. They may be owners, but for the most part they look after other people's flocks. Their work is somewhat simplified compared to the past by the fact that they have radios to communicate, some have a mobile phone if the signal is good or an all-terrain vehicle. They keep milk buyers informed of the readiness of stocks.
More than twenty famous shepherd families have been mapped in Central Spiš. At present, there are only a few members of the last generation to have experienced the traditional forms of sheep farming in Central Spiš. They are already in their eighties and nineties, but they still have knowledge of the extremely archaic phenomena associated with the shepherd culture of Spiš. In the museum in Smižany we can see an exposition of the folk culture of Spiš, of which sheep breeding is a part.
Gallery
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