Work in and around our cowshed in Rotholz

Next to our school are the most important auction rooms for selling cattle in our area. There the farmers can sell their cows and very often they are sold to Italy. Auctions are very important for us for earning money. It’s already a lot of fun for the smallest children (age of 4 or 5 years) to show their calves in the ring that means leading them around and hoping to get as much money as possible for them. In winter all our cows from the school and from our students who are farmers are having their cows indoors. They are in the stable. There we have to feed them (hay, silage, concentrate, water), to milk them and to keep the stable clean. Nowadays, like in our hygienic stable, many cows have the possibility to move freely in the stable. They can walk around, eat when they want or can find a place for lying around. Now, at the end of May, beginning of June many farmers bring their cows on the alm (=alpine pastures). It’s a very important time for the cows (fresh air, very healthy grass and herbs, they have to move in pathless areas) and we are really getting fantastic milk. For the farmers it’s an important time too. When the cows are on the alm they have time for making hay for their cows for the next winter. In many areas in the Tyrol a lot of that work must be done by hand. Because of the steep fields many of our farmers (students and their parents) have no chance to use machines for harvesting hay or silage.