‘Teacher, my favourite part was jumping on the grass!’.
Educational activities for children and young people should be fun, and LIFE Maronesa’s activities are no exception!
After welcoming students from the Vila Pouca de Aguiar Professional School in December and 8th graders from the Diogo Cão School in Vila Real in April, it was time to welcome the first class from the municipality of Ribeira de Pena, 4th graders from the Cerva School.
In a morning that was very well organised by breeder Avelino Rego, the students were able to experience the calves’ breakfast on arrival, before their mothers set off on their daily round on the mountain.
During the meal, the past and present of livestock farming and pastoralism in Alvadia were analysed and the students were shown the characteristics of the Maronesa cow, which make them essential in this landscape.
Once the calves had finished their meal, it was time to leave the farm and lead the cows to the common land to eat what the mountain gives them, which makes them resilient and the ideal herbivore for this territory.
A second stop was made at the transition between the village and the mountain. As we watched the cows leave for more remote parts of the common land, the themes of fire behaviour and the concept of mosaics were introduced in a simplified, visual way, demonstrating the differences between areas with a dense shrub load and other more diverse areas with much more grass and a few scattered shrubs and trees. The fact that part of the village was affected by the wildfire of September 2024 helped the students to see the results of the fundamental role of herbivores in the conservation of the Serra do Alvão.
Then we went back down to the meadows located further away from the village centre, where the students learned about the importance of meadows, an ancestral piece of land with high ecological value, passed down from generation to generation and fundamental to the livestock farms of breeders and shepherds. In the meadow, which was also hit by the fire in September, Avelino narrated the tragedy of the wildfire’s arrival on this cropland, which is rich in organic matter, and shared with the students the extra attention he has given this year to working on restoring the fertility of his meadow.
At the end of the visit, we returned to Avelino’s farm, where among many jumps and flips on the grass that is used to supplement the cows after they arrive from the mountain, the students helped him distribute the supplement flour in the calf feeders and were the first to test the new calf weighing system, a personal introduction by the farmer to his holding to monitor the health and weight of his calves with greater detail.
After a morning of running around and having fun, no-one was grounded and the students from the 4th year class at Escola de Cerva certainly had an enjoyable experience to share with their families and the rest of their school mates.
