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XtraBlatt Issue 02-2018

  • Text
  • Krone
  • Machinery
  • Forage
  • Straw
  • Farmer
  • Contractor
  • Dairy
  • Bales
  • Agricultural
  • Cows

INTERNATIONAL THE

INTERNATIONAL THE SMOLANA FAMILY, TRAHÜTTEN HIGH IN THE IDYL The Koralpe range southwest of Graz represents the most easterly foothills of the Alps. Pasture and forest characterise the landscape here – as they do on the Smolana family farm where alongside suckler cows, forestry and energy production, additional income comes from a guesthouse and a hotel. 18

LIC ALPS Farmer Peter Smolana stands atop a great rock and scans the countryside in concentration. Where can his cows be? More important: where are the new-born calves? It’s quarter to six mid-July and we’re around 1,650 metres up on a Koralpe alm of summer grazings, the Koralpe being eastern spur of the Alps in Austria’s Western Styria state, edging along the border with Slovenia. We are already above the tree line. This farmer from the hamlet of Trahütten in Deutschlandsberg district tenants 120 ha up here where, from beginning of June through to September 10, his suckler herd grazes. “We brought up 34 head in spring and 16 of the cows have since calved.” Driving the stock up the mountain and back down again in autumn takes 4 hours each way with Peter and his two sons Felix (10) and Paul (8) herding, the two youngsters loving to lend a hand. Peter’s aunty Heidi also never misses a change of joining this special herding event. 19