Agriculture, southern Germany, Austria: The dairymaid is responsible for rounding up and milking the cows and, if necessary, for making dairy products (butter, cheese); she usually runs alpine farming alone on behalf of the farmer
Josefa Leitner, 20 years old, lives in the mountains, alone and without internet. She is responsible for dozens of young cattle – and wants to find out how she gets on with herself. The film accompanies the young dairymaid for two years.
Video in German only: https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/erlebnis-erde/die-sennerin/das-erste
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Bernese Oberland Alpine Cheese
Berner Alpkäse is a hard cheese produced in the Alps of the Bernese Oberland and adjacent areas of Switzerland. It is classified as a Swiss-type or Alpine cheese, and is a spicy, full-fat, raw milk cheese without holes. The cheese is manufactured exclusively with manual labour, usually on a wood fire.
‘Cheese Sharing’ in the Berner Oberland
Here in the Berner Oberland, around the 10th of June, 20,000 cows go up the mountains into the alpine pastures. There are 630 dairy huts scattered throughout the mountains. From these huts, over two million pounds of alpcheese are produced. Cheese aged for three years or more is called Höbelkäse and is sold in local restaurants.
It takes 10 kilograms (22 lbs) of milk to produce just one kilogram of cheese. Therefore, a day in the life of an alpine dairy farmer is very hard. A farmer’s day starts by 5 a.m. and does not end until after 8 p.m. He or she gets only one day off each summer and must stay in the Alps for 100 days. Throughout the summer they may have to move into other huts in higher elevations, to find more fertile pastures for the cows.
There are three different types of cows: the browns in the east, the brown and whites in the central region, and the black-and-white ones in the French part of Switzerland. Unlike Swiss humans, the cows all speak the same language: “Mooooo!”
At the end of summer, around the first week in September, the cows begin their descent into the plains and valleys. This is a time of great celebration. There are parties everywhere and the cheese is distributed to the owner of the cow after the daily milk report. The festivities around the cheese-cutting and distribution to the farmer are known locally as a Chästeilet (“cheese sharing”).
This is a wonderful opportunity to see another side of the Berner Oberland — to venture into isolated areas that the average tourist generally does not get to see. Don’t be afraid; my hotel guests have had outstanding adventures with the locals. Enjoying our wine and beer might also help.
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Many regions of our Alps used to have their own cattle breeds: their own goats, sheep, chickens and, above all, their own cattle. The Tux cattle, for example, were mainly native to the Zillertal, the Grauvieh in Tyrol, the Pinzgauer in Pinzgau, the Original Braunvieh in Switzerland and Vorarlberg, the Pustertaler Sprinzen in the Pustertal and the Murnau-Werdenfelser in the Bavarian Alpine foothills.
Some of these once most important cattle breeds in the Alps are presented in two films. The first film about the “gray and the red” shows the Tyrolean gray cattle and the Murnau-Werdenfelser. Andreas Witting and Josef Seitz from Mittenwald are among the farmers who still keep the now rare Murnau-Werdenfelser cattle. A breed that is at home here and that still gets by on grass and water. It was not long ago that slaughter premiums were paid for these beautiful, delicate animals. They should give way to the high-performance cows. But Andreas and Josef have always stayed with their Murnau-Werdenfelsers, and it is thanks to them that they did not become extinct.
A film by Josef Schwellensattl
