Wallachian Sheep
Walachenschaf
Also Known By:Moravian Zackelschaf, Voloshian, Valakhskaya, Voloshskaya, Valachian, Valahian, Valakhian, Volosh, Walachian, Wallachian achel, Woloschian
The Walachenschaf is a highly endangered landrace sheep. There are only about 200 animals left as of Oct. 1998. Romanian shepherds brought along sheep when they migrated west during the Walach colonization and they settled in the Beskides, a range in the Carpathian Mountains. The sheep remained isolated in this Moravian mountain range from the 13th to the 16th century and developed into an independent breed. This original Walachenschaf was bred only in Slovakia, Czech, and southern Poland. - Mason, I.L. 1996.- A World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds, Types and Varieties. Fourth Edition. C.A.B International. 273 pp.
"These "nomadic Wallachs" roamed far and wide across the Danube plain; sometimes they crossed the river and pushed right down to Greece, or else and made for the north, east and west, led their large flocks as far as Poland, and Moravia, into the Hungarian Pusta and the great Russian Steppe. They are the strangest and in the same time the most attractive people one can meet. ... With his huge fur-lined cap on one ear, his thick great coat with the wool turned outward flung round his shoulders, the Wallachian shepherd is frequently to be seen, leaning on his crook silhouetted on the horizon, his faithful dog by his side. If the weather is warm he throws off his coat and goes about in his shirt sleeves, his leather belt pulled tight round his hips. If it rains or snows or blows hard, he again dons his coat which serves as his blanket at night. These shepherds live together in fives, sixes, or tens, master and men making a family, they, the dogs and the sheep, a numerous, silent, slow-moving community in which all is mild and gentle.."
- George Oprescu - Peasant Art in Roumania - London, The Studio Ltd., 1929, pp.27-28
"Breeds
In Romania there are two autochthon, native breeds: Tsurcana, named
also Zackel ("mountain peasant", "Romanian") or Walachian ("Romanian"),
is the sheep of Sibiu transhumant shepherds, and Tsigai, the sheep of
Braov and Covasna transhumant shepherds. Both are well adapted to the
conditions of Romania, but maybe Tsurcana is better adapted to the
alpine pasture....
DANGEROUS DECLINE, POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
The old Romanian sheep production systems were not adapted to the
economic and social challenges of twentieth century. Transhumance, the
wealthiest Romanian sheep production system, was the first affected
before 1950. Two to three forces worked against it: (1) difficult life
of the transhumant shepherds; (2) the animosity of agricultural farmers
towards transhumance, because in their routes the transhumant flocks
damage crops and (3) after 1920 the transhumance routes were strictly
limited to the Romanian borders. They survived after 1960 just because
they received some non-official help from some state and cooperative
farms (wintering facilities, accepted routes, etc.) and from the state
recorder office. Some of them used to be the only officially known
millionaires of Socialist Romania. For economical, ecological and
historical reasons, they must receive further state and scientific
support. The sheep production system of non-shepherd peasants is
a half-subsistence system and is not just historically old-fashioned,
but has low efficiency. It has shown itself capable of surviving many
difficult economic situations, frequently by tightening the belt, i.e.
by continuing to operate on reduced income below which a sheep master
or a farming company fails to be viable..."
-Drgnescu, C. - ROMANIAN SHEEP PRODUCTION SPECTACULAR PAST, DECLINE, UNCERTAIN FUTURE from:
REU
Technical Series 50 SHEEP AND GOAT PRODUCTION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
Proceedings of the workshop held in Budapest, Hungary Edited by Sándor
Kukovics Research Institute for Animal Breeding and Nutrition
Herceghalom, Hungary FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED
NATIONS Rome 1998
