!!!Almwirtschaft

Alpine Pastures, Husbandry: has been going on in the Alps since the La 
Tène Age (Celts). At first, the high Alpine pastures (alms) 
were used (Bronze Age relics found) and the valleys were not used 
until later. The oldest pasture areas bore Celtic, later 
Rhaeto-Romanic, then German field names.

\\
In places where the permanent settlement is at a high altitude, (e.g. 
Lech in Vorarlberg, Obergurgl in Tyrol), there are no separate Alpine 
pastures. In places where the farms are in the valleys, mountain 
pastures are used in 2 or 3 stages. 2-3 weeks before the actual 
mountain pasture season, the animals are brought to what is called the 
"Maiensaess" (= lower pastures, or "Vorsaess", clear patches in 
the forest belt). The actual Alpine pastures, or alms, themselves are 
around or above the forest line.

\\
Around 1900, official support of the use of the Alpine pastures was 
introduced after P. Schuppli's pioneering work in the field. Since 
1907, laws for the protection and support of Alpine pastures have been 
in place.

\\
In the course of overall structural transformation in the Austrian 
economy, Alpine pasture use lost a great deal of its significance 
between World War II and the mid-1970s. Many Alpine pastures were 
left unused, especially in eastern Austrian mountain pasture areas. 
After that time, the introduction of state support for Alpine pastures 
as well as the regulation on Alpine pasture milk in the Austrian 
market regulation law effected a certain degree of consolidation in 
Austrian Alpine pasture use. Since 1995, Austrian hill farmers have 
also been able to avail themselves of promotion schemes for hill 
farmers provided by the European Union. In western and southern 
Austria, traditional pasture use for milk and cheese production is 
still very important, whereas eastern Austrian Alpine pasture use is 
dominated by extensive young livestock keeping.

\\
Between 1952 and 1986, when the total mountain pasture area was 
reduced, the forested alm areas lost 27 %, the unproductive alm 
areas 28 % and the alm pasture area (around half of the total alm 
area) 16 %, leading to a total loss of approx. 142,000 hectares 
of pasture area. In 1997, alm and mountain meadowland covered 851,128 
hectares (approx. 25% of Austria´s total agricultural area). 
With more than 12,000 Alpine pastures in use, on which approx. 70,000 
alm farmers grazed approx. 500,000 head of cattle, Austria has the 
highest alpine farming figures in the EU.  Alm.

\\
Everyday language, sagas, customs, popular traditional dress and art 
clearly demonstrate the significance of Alpine pasture use as an area 
of life in popular culture.

!Further reading
O. Brugger and R. Wohlfarter, Alpwirtschaft heute, 
1983; Federal Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry (ed.), Gruener 
Bericht 1997, 1998.


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Almwirtschaft|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]