Reading the Wiki on the White Revolution in Iran and I came across this
“While the Caspian forests were nationalized, the forest inhabitants—primarily cattle herders—were expelled by the government and relocated to nearby villages”
How does cattle herding work in forests? Isn’t hard for herds to move around, and is there really sufficient grazing for them?
I’m not saying it’s not a thing, just that I’ve never heard of it and curious how it works.
I live in Montana, and I have seen a few cattle herds living in forested areas. They either like feeling protected by the trees, like being out of the sun, or both, or for some other reason. The farmers lay out hay in a neighboring field, and the cattle go there to eat it, drink some water, and head back to the trees. I wouldn’t say it’s common, but given the opportunity to hang out in a forested area, at least some cattle will do it. I’ve seen it.
thanks. I live in NJ where I see no cattle, so this surprised me.
There is a difference of orders of magnitude between the most and least intense cattle raising practices. I suspect that cattle herding in Caspian forests was very low intensity (low numbers of cattle per unit area) and that they grazed in clearings.
In the arid western US, many cattle spend the summer up in the mountains on national forest land. The low elevation valleys are mostly too dry to support grazing year round. The cows get moved down off the mountain in the fall because there is too much snow in the mountains to winter there.
The Aurochs, the prehistoric wild ancestor of the cow, lived both in forest and open grasslands, so not that surprising in a way.
American bison have two subtypes: plains and woods. We tend to think of the plains bisons because of the iconic imagery of vast herds, but bison lived all the way to the Atlantic coasts.
Herding swine in forests is common and probably more familiar to those of us in cultures that eat pork. Since many people in Iran do not eat pork, it makes more economic sense in forests to raise cattle instead.
It should be noted that the English word “forest” does not always imply a place with lots of trees. There’s an older meaning “land owned by the king and reserved for his use”, and there are also areas whose name includes the word “forest” for historical reasons but are no longer heavily wooded, like “Sherwood Forest” and “Ettrick Forest”.
That being said, it does appear that “Caspian forests” or “Hyrcanian forests” are indeed a fairly wooded area, although undoubtedly some parts are more heavily wooded than others. I would expect that cattle were kept in the less densely wooded areas.
What others have said about “forest” not equal to “total tree cover” is the main thing.
Here’s an article on Iranian Caspian forest cattle herding - with pictures:
thanks…once again the Dope comes through with way more information than I expected.
Agree. Many hikes in the high Sierra will encounter barbed-wire fencing in various states of disrepair. Evidently, the high alpine meadows and surrounding forests (which are sparse) were used for grazing cattle in recent times, and sheep before that.
Low-density woodland grazing is used in some conservation schemes in the UK; basically cattle churn up the ground a bit and preferentially eat some of the more dominant plant species, allowing more niche species to grow, and they may allow tree seedlings to establish.
I say ‘may’ as cattle will browse on tree leaves as well as grass and undergrowth, so it can be a bit complicated to predict impact, as it partially depends on the tree species, but also deer tend to avoid areas with cattle, so it can reduce overgrazing damage in some areas even if the cattle do cause some damage.
Normally really hardy heritage cattle are used which need minimal attention. Not much beef production, but that’s not always the main goal.
Still happens across Switzerland
I remember hiking somewhere in the Sierras about 25 years ago. I don’t recall exactly where it was, but I heard something crashing through a fairly thick stand of trees. I remember thinking it must have been the biggest and clumsiest deer in the world, when I caught sight of it: A cow! Not far behind were several other cattle, a few of them wearing bells. Turns out they were free-ranging in the forest. I have no idea how the rancher kept track of them or rounded them up. I’m pretty sure it was public land, either state or federal.
Decrepit barbed wire is also found on hikes in the Catskills, which used to have far more cattle before the days of factory farming.
And @MrDibble that linked article is fascinating. The word “transhumance” brought me right back to GCE “O” level geography, one of my favourite subjects.
I remember having to memorize a list of feudal privileges for a university history class, including “pannage”. I probably don’t need to keep that in my permanent memory nowadays.