Owners of 30% of this native breed in danger of extinction denounce the obstacles to grazing in the Community due to the usurpation of livestock routes
Antonio García ‘Calares’ has a passion for animals. “Sometimes I work for the love of art,” he says about the years of drought or heavy rains, this rancher and shepherd of mountain sheep, a native breed of southeastern Spain listed as endangered-threatened by the Ministry of Agriculture.
At 64 years old, he acknowledges that he has been attracted to “the beasts, since I was born under a sheep in the Majada de las Vacas (Moratalla)”. And he says that, “in this area, there could be between 40 and 50 ranchers. Today, in Calasparra and Moratalla, no more than four». Generational change is one of the most serious threats in the sector. This is confirmed by Alfonso Gil, owner of 1,200 mountain sheep. «I am the fourth generation of pastors and with me it ends. Nobody wants the herd », he says disheartened, at 49 years old, the last of his lineage.
valuable genetic resource
Dedicated body and soul to livestock since he was 20 years old, Antonio ‘Calares’ has among his herds 2,500 of the 12,000 mountain sheep that the national herd has, to which are added in the Region the 1,200 of Alfonso and a couple of herds more, of 1,000 and 600 head. A valuable genetic heritage due to its scarcity, points out Francisco López, veterinarian of the National Association of Wild Sheep Breeders (Acrimon), which estimates the herd in the Region at more than 40%.
Breed “very rustic and very well adapted to the most adverse climatic conditions and the most arid areas, they are a genetic resource that we must not lose, and less so now, in the face of climate change”, defends the Acrimon veterinarian. The montesina, raised for her meat, López recognizes that it is less productive than others. “Rustness and productivity are inversely proportional”, reveals the equation. And he gives as a unique example the 100% extensive breeding of Antonio García. “Empty, in farrowing or breeding, I take them in groups of 1,000 or 800, from Tercia de Ulea (Moratalla) to Sierra del Puerto, Venta Reale, Rotas and Casablanca, in Calasparra,” he says while receiving two calls from farmers so that their cattle eat “the stubble”.
The veterinarian values the breeding that Calares makes of his flock. «It is exceptional, of the 50 ranchers of Montesina, a thousand lambing sheep that go out to graze and do not supplement [con cereal]I haven’t seen it.” “Now, with the pandemic and the war, it has been shown that this is food security: the rise in cereal prices does not affect them and access to meat does not depend on imports,” defends López.
that’s how they see it
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Francisco López, veterinarian of Acrimon
«The loss of grazing implies that of pastures [gran sumidero de CO2] and the associated biodiversity» -
Rubén Vives, member of Ecologists in Action
“The regional government has opted for intensive farming; for them, extensive does not exist» -
Antonio Contreras, Professor of Animal Health at the UMU
“Now that there are no epidemics limiting livestock movements, there are no herds left to move”
Calares found Pedro del Amo two years ago, a 35-year-old from La Mancha from Munera and from a family of shepherds with whom he hopes to guarantee the replacement, while his 2-year-old grandson Leo is old enough to decide if he wants to follow in the footsteps of the grandfather. However, he faces another of the serious threats of grazing on a daily basis: the occupation of cattle trails, conflicts with neighboring owners and the deterioration of the associated heritage, such as watering holes and resting places. In fact, «it was a year ago on May 18 that I denounced in Environment the occupation of the Cordel de Cehegín [37,6 m de ancho] by an owner who has fenced around the axis and I still have no answer”, says Calares. There he passes his herd up to a couple of times a week and the usurpation of the cord forces him to invade the land of another farmer, which is a cause of conflict.
The same thing happens to Alfonso Gil, who in October saw at the Las Canales farm how some permanent community pastures and the branch line that he uses every two months to get from Las Cañadas (Moratalla) to the area of Las Cumbres and the Huerta de Calasparra. Now, “about four months after the environmental agents denounced it” in the Ministry, on the dry land there are almond trees with drip irrigation and, on the cattle route, a “huge reservoir that prevents me from passing”, he tells about an itinerary along which they have migrated four generations ago.
The constant occupations of cattle trails hinder a profession that is threatened with death. “In Albacete all the livestock trails are marked,” says Del Amo. Not in vain, “the Region of Murcia is at the bottom in the protection of this public domain, which represents 1% of the peninsular territory and of which not even 1% of the regional network is demarcated,” says Rubén Vives, specialist in livestock trails of Ecologists in Action. “The regional government has opted for intensive farming. For them, the extensive one does not exist”, criticizes Vives. “The loss of grazing implies much more; the disappearance of the associated cultural heritage, that of pastures, which is one of the largest sinks of CO2, and that of the biodiversity that it favors”, adds López. And the professor of Animal Health at the UMU Antonio Contreras regrets that, “now that we have controlled brucellosis and the epidemics, which limited the movements of cattle, there are no longer any herds to move.”
«There are more than 1,000 files a year»
From the Ministry of the Environment they confirm that the complaint of occupation of the Cordel de Cehegín was presented more than a year ago. «Natural Environment has made a report and the environmental agents will go to see the area to make, later, a request for the fence to be removed. The problem is that it is not defined. This is what happens to more than 99% of the regional livestock trails, despite the fact that since 1995 the law has obliged to preserve this public domain since it enjoys state, regional and local protection. “There are more than 1,000 files per year of cattle routes,” they justify from the Environment before this eternal year of waiting for Calares and its herds.
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