In our valley, no crops because our fields are too small for big agricultural machine.
Tarasconnaises sheeps (with horns!), Mérens horses with beautiful black dress and Gasconnes cows graze all steps of the mountain: outskirts of villages and high mountain pastures in summer .
The presence of all those herds keeps the middle open and preserves the rich of Pyrenees.
The collective organization is quite alive for the management of summer pastures, which we here call "mountains".
The farmers organized in pastoral groups with large herds from 300 to 500 cows, 800 to 2000 sheeps. Those pastoral groups group provides maintenance and management of these large areas: pastoral huts, access tracks. It also allows the hiring of shepherds and cowherds who keep these herds in the mountains.

So, while thoroughly modern, the pastoral world continues traditions of secular management of mountain areas, guaranteeing a preserved nature

Spring
grazing in Unac meadows

Summer
mountain pasture

Autumn
back to thefarm

 
Winter
hay at Appy