(PHOTO) SHEEP BREEDERS GATHERED IN SENTA; Looking for a shepherd more; HERE’S HOW MUCH YOU CAN EARN KEEPING SHEEP

Sheep farming is an important industry in northern Potisje, in Senta and the surrounding municipalities, because as the director of the Agricultural Expert Service of Senta, Josip Češljar, shows, there is a trend of increasing the number of slaughtered sheep.

– Thanks to the tenders of the Provincial Secretariat for Agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture of Serbia and the Hungarian “Prosperitati” Foundation for the procurement of breeding cows, many young people took advantage of this opportunity and acquired quality breeding cows. “Vinterberg”, “Ile de France”, “Chocanska cigaja” dominate as autochthonous and in a smaller number of other breeds. This year’s increase in state subsidies, which are now 10,000 dinars per slaughtered head and 3,000 dinars for lambs delivered to slaughterhouses, contributes to the preservation of the herd – emphasizes Češljar.

Young people opt for farm-intensive keeping of purebred sheep, because there is not enough pasture everywhere. While the municipalities of Kanjiža and Čoka are abundant with quality pastures, Senta and Ada have fewer areas for grazing. Shepherds agree that this year the price of live weight of lambs is favorable, because at the beginning of the year it was 600 dinars, and now it is 500 to 550 dinars per kilogram. Sheep farming is based on income from the sale of lambs, which is a motive for shepherds to keep their flocks, although there are also those who give up or reduce the number of sheep.

Čaba Boršoš from Adorjan, the owner of an export farm and the largest herd of winterberg sheep in Serbia with around 3,000 heads, notes that a lot of sheep ended up in slaughterhouses in the previous two years. He believes that the state is late with the increase in subsidies, so now that the conditions are more favorable, the owners of the herd leave the female lambs for breeding, and only sell the male lambs, which affects the shortage of lamb.

– Currently, we have almost 5,000 lambs that we are preparing for export, but we do not know if we will be able to fill the ship, which requires at least 6,000 heads. For May 1, Orthodox Easter and St. George’s Day, demand has increased on the domestic market, so it will be difficult to fill a ship for the export of male lambs mainly to Arab countries, while female lambs go to Bosnia and Herzegovina, some to North Macedonia, and slaughtered to Croatia – he says Borshosh.

A whole sheep in Bograč

Paprikaš was cooked in more than 50 large and small cauldrons, and it takes up to four hours for the mutton to simmer in the bograč. Istvan Feješ Flenko from Martonoš says that the tastiest stew is if the meat of a whole sheep is found in the bograč, from tail to head. Janos Šandor from Torda, says that when the real stew is simmering, the whole street smells like it, and it also smelled like that in Vašarište in Senča.

The owners of the herd are currently most troubled by the lack of shepherds, nor can they be found easily here, so Boršoš hired three shepherds from Romania. The shepherd’s salary is now 600 euros, he is still provided with accommodation and food, and even internet in the pasture, so the time has come for the shepherd to be worth his weight in gold, adds Boršoš. In manual sheep shearing, the best was Kristof Feher from Trešnjevac, ahead of Branislav Zubrecki from Sanad, while in machine shearing, the winner was Zholt Chabai from Kevi.

– The quality and beauty of the haircut is evaluated. I learned this job from my father Stevan, my great-grandfather also did it. Earnings can be made from shearwater in the current season. 350 to 400 dinars are earned per sheep, and up to 50 sheep can be sheared by hand during the day – we learn from 25-year-old Branislav Zubrecki.

Text and photo:
M. Mitrovic