Every year around this time there is a curious spectacle in the mountains of Llessui in Pallars. The cows that have spent the summer in these mountains return home before the eyes of the cowboys who are already waiting to regroup them and return them to their respective farms.
This Wednesday, once again, some thirty farmers met at the cowboy’s cabin in Llessui (Sort), to withdraw the animals and return them home.
These cowboys, coming from Pallars Sobirà y Jussà, Ripollès, Berguedà, Solsonès or Cerdanya, take the animals to this mountain because of its extension and the ease of handling the cattle. The ranchers spread out over the mountain and comb it palm by palm collecting all the cows, about 1200, and grouping them in a large esplanade. Next, everyone separates their animals and they bring them home with trucks.
The farmers have been happy to see the animals come down from the mountain. At the beginning of the summer they thought that they would have had to advance the return home due to the lack of pasture due to the drought. Josep Anton Canudes, a farmer from Berguedà, explained that the rains in August made the mountain green again and finally the animals have been well in the area.
Fewer and fewer farmers return home with their animals on foot along the transhumant paths and practically all of them load them onto trucks, since many of the farmers who carry animals in Llessui are far away.
Ramon Pellicer, a Berguedà farmer, has acknowledged that he has been taking part of his cattle to spend the summer in Llessui for years due to the mountain conditions, unique in the country due to its size and characteristics. Miles and miles of treeless mountain make the visibility of the cows much easier than in other places.
Pellicer has praised the figure of the cowboy Albert Baqueró, who has spent four months in the mountains watching day and night for the welfare of the animals. Baqueró reported any slight incident to a cow immediately to its owner. Being able to have a cowboy all summer is a strong point of this mountain for all ranchers.
The cows, all in ramadas, have left the high mountain pastures this Wednesday, at about 1,900 meters above sea level, to return home, before being surprised by the first snowfall. And the cowboys, all of them, have celebrated this return.
