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On Your Farm: Blessing the Cattle

Blessing the Cattle

BBC Radio 4 - On Your Farm, Blessing the Cattle

For centuries the cattle of the west of Ireland have been led for the winter to the Burren

For centuries the beef cattle of the west of Ireland have been led for winter grazing to the Burren, high above Galway Bay.  Join them as the local priest blesses their journey.

When Winter comes most hill farmers take their cattle off the high ground and place them in sheds until Spring. Geology allows them to do things a little differently on the Burren. In County Clare on the west coast of Ireland, the Burren is a flower-rich limestone plateau. In Summer the rock absorbs the heat and, like a giant night storage heater, it radiates the warmth out in the Winter. That makes life pretty agreeable for the region’s beef cattle. Each year the season to move the cattle is marked by a festival. The local priest sprinkles holy water on their coats and a chosen farmer walks his pregnant cows up the green road to the mountain grazing, followed by hundreds of locals and tourists eager to see the delighted leaping of the cattle as they reach the fresh grazing of their Winter home.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

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