Grazing is the elementary and primary way of utilising grassy areas whereby the untended graslands are used for putting ruminants and horses out to pasture. History books make mention od grazing even before the times of Mary Theresa. During her reign, pastures truly gained importance, as they could not be converted into fields and vineyards because od impeded access in mountainous regions. Thus, pastures have become indispensable to alpine farms. With time, the purpose of grazing has changed often, the pasture is left in place only to prevent overgrowing while summer grazing, where animals graze troughout the summer season and are driven into the valley only in the fall, is still in use in mountainous regions. Besides grazing, this is also exploited to promote tourism, as the sight of a sheperd pretending to put cows out to pasture is interesting and unusual. The manner od grazing ha salso changed, as manual work is no loger financiallw worthwhile, farmers put up permanent or temporary electric fences, which are already being replaced by invisiblje fences in some places. The variation in alpine grazing in different parst of Slovenia is also interesting, as locations vary not only in the biodiversity of the turf, but also in the position if the pasture, the amount of sunlight and the type of grazing animals. Pastures still remain in areas with limiting factors for agricultural care, which makes it extremly difficult to prepare the pasture for grazing season and to make it accessible to animals, another important limiting factor are large beasts. Preying on the grazing animals, which is difficult to prevent if we do not have the necessary knowledge. This thesis deals with the charasteristics od grazing in Slovenia and present day challenges relating to grassland utilisation: how to garner alpine goods while conserving nature.
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