Development of Simmental Cattle Production on Farms in Sudety Region
No. 27-0623-01

Międzylesie is located in South-West region of Poland at the foothills of Sudety Mountains in the region called Lower Silesia. Sudety Mountains run over 250 km along the Czech-Polish border. Gently rolling hills of Sudety foothills covered with a big area of grasslands create good conditions for keeping ruminants. For this reason in the previous periods of time this region was used as a farm animals basin - dairy cattle, young livestock and fat stock were brought there from distant regions for hill grazing. Unfortunately, due to transformation of Polish economy this region faced dramatic collapse of cattle breeding. Bankruptcy of state farms that coved over 60 % of arable land in this region before 1999 significantly contributed to that process.

Due to harsh climate farming in this region has never been profitable for small scale farmers. It was also difficult for them to generate additional income for their families, since outside agriculture job opportunities are very limited there. To make things worse, in 1997 huge flood affected this area. Fast flowing water resulted in huge losses to the properties of the farm families. A lot of private and public resources had to be directed into fixing flood damages.

To help local farmers HPI started Simmental cattle project with them. Simmental cattle, as dual-purpose breed, produce good quality milk as well as good amount of meat. 30 pregnant Simmental heifers have been distributed among 30 needy farm families in Międzylesie community, creating very good start for improving quality of cattle kept in the region. Recognizing the value of the Simmental cattle and their usefulness on local farms, the group of farmers is reintroducing this breed through the HPI project. These cattle guarantee better productivity of milk in mountainous region, resulting in increase in rural families' incomes.

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