The continued drought of recent months prevents ranchers from Ripollès from bringing their cattle into Empordà where they transhumance every year, something unprecedented. “I’ve been there for 50 years, but this year there is no food or water,” says Jaume Batlle, adding that “even the bushes are dead.”
The cattle that should be down, now graze in the Ripolles fields, but since there is no grass either, the ranchers must buy the fodder in France at a “golden price”, double what they were paying.
The same thing has happened to Jaume Morera and Ramon Carbonell, also from the Vall de Ribes, which has already led to the sacrifice of livestock to reduce the herd. “That is unsustainable,” they warn and denounce that the administration does not support them.
Livestock farmers from the Vall de Ribes and the Vall de Camprodon, in Ripollès, have seen how the situation on their farms has worsened due to the drought and lack of pasture in the Empordà, in points such as Roses, Cadaqués or the Port de la Selva. “In other years at this point we would have been there for two months,” laments Jaume Morera, who does not see any future in the medium term.
He is the fourth generation of ranchers in his family and says he doesn’t remember anything like this before. “If this goes further, I don’t know what we will have to do because we cannot keep the livestock at these prices and let’s see what happens if it rains,” he laments, saying that this is a problem that the entire Catalan peasantry suffers from.
Getting through this winter, he says, “will be very difficult.” The fodder has doubled and this winter they have much more cattle than usual. “And the rents on the Empordà lands must be paid the same, as is normal and we have to buy food from up there,” details the rancher.
According to their data, the price of dry herb has doubled to reach 120 euros. Last year it rained before summer but from September onwards the drought came and the aquifers are suffering, also in the mountains. They say that there are sources that do not flow: “For this to happen to us here is serious.”
This is also confirmed by Ramon Carbonell, a rancher from Ribes de Freser, who has all the cows in the area because he has not been able to take them to Colera, where they carry out transhumance every year.
“We have a watering hole where the animals have always drank and now it has dried up,” he explains.
For him, it has also been a very hard winter. He explains that costs have doubled and that every day he spends 1,200 euros on fodder to feed his more than 200 extensive livestock cows. “I need 12 bullets every day, it is unsustainable and the administration should help us, we are all the same,” he complains. And he wonders how the price of a cow can be the same as it was 40 years ago while costs have not stopped growing year after year.
Jaume Batlle, a rancher in Pardines and a resident of Queralbs, warns that the situation will affect the final consumer. “First we receive, but everything is a chain,” he warns and denounces that the farmer is the worst paid of all, despite working every day of the week.
Livestock farming has been denouncing this situation for some time and like many farmers, in Ripollès they have also had to sacrifice animals ahead of time to avoid closing.
For Morera, taking productive cattle to the slaughterhouse due to lack of food and reducing costs “tastes bad” because it takes many years of work making a good selection.
“Having to kill cows for not having food hurts,” he says. That is why they try to do it only with the largest specimens or those that cannot breed.
Livestock farmers also complain that the administration is not supporting them enough and that the aid approved last year has been very insufficient. “We are in 2024 and in 2023 no one has yet said anything about what they will give us and what is planned,” says Carbonell helplessly, who claims to feel “very alone and very tired” of having to go against the current.
Another aspect that has outraged the ranchers Ramon Carbonell and Jaume Morera is that they will not be charged for the loss of pastures due to drought insurance that they will contract in 2023 because the company, Agroseguro, has dismissed it as claims. According to Unió de Pagesos information, the insurer will only indemnify points in Alt and Baix Empordà, Cerdanya and Baix Ripollès (to a lesser extent).
The Alt Ripollès, on the other hand, has been excluded. To calculate it, the insurer relies on data obtained by satellite that, through sensors, allows them to see the vegetation on the farms between April and November, the time when forage is most used in the mountains.
In addition, it is also compared with the history of the last 10 years in the area and thus the final value is determined. UP demands that these measures be accompanied by on-site inspections to more accurately calculate possible damage.
All of them are using savings to weather the situation, but they admit to being on the limit. According to Carbonell, “we are losing the heritage that our grandparents and parents created, we are losing it in a short time.” And be careful, there are very few ranchers left. “What future will we leave to our children, a country that has no food or energy, it is a country without a future.”
In his case, he says that he has about five years left to retire and, if the situation does not change, “they will be the longest of his life.” And he admits that he sees the future of the peasantry as very dark: “We are critical, my children want to continue it but I don’t see it at all clear because now you work without enthusiasm, we farmers are tired,” he concludes.
