Alpine farming
in the Vinschgau Valley

The almost 100 alpine pastures in the Vinschgau Valley, one like the forest areas, most by owned by local administrations, by municipalities and by agricultural communities and thus managed and run as a community of authorised users and members.

 

On a total of more than 35,000 hectares of alpine pasture (corresponding to about 22,000 hectares of pure alpine pasture), more than 9,000 large livestock units are summered and calved every year during the summer months. 

These are more than 1,500 dairy cows, about 6,200 young cattle, 400 horses and 16,000 sheep and goats.

 

In the Vinschgau Valley there are currently about 800 livestock farms, around 500 of them being milk suppliers. As in the rest of the novince, this number has been declining sharply in our valley over the past decades. In part, there has been a switch to other crops and production orientations, and in part agricultural activity has been completely abandoned. The land that has become available has - at least so far – been farmed by other farms.