The transfer of livestock, usually cattle and sheep, between winter and summer pastures. It is characteristic of some mountainous regions, where whole families may move with their flocks up to the high-altitude pastures. It may also occur in arctic regions, where livestock are moved to more northerly pastures for the summer.

Transhumance is a term that has two accepted usages:

Older sources use the term transhumance for vertical seasonal livestock movement, typically to higher pastures in summer and to the lower valleys in winter. Some recent studies consider nomadism, where livestock move to follow grazing over considerable distances following set seasonal patterns (with the whole family of herders living in temporary shelters which move with the herds all the year round), a form of transhumance.

Traditional or fixed transhumance, in which livestock ascend to mountain pastures in summer and descend to relatively warm areas in the valleys, foothills, plains or desert fringe in winter, occurs throughout the world, including Scandinavia, France, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Spain, Turkey, Switzerland, Georgia and Lesotho. Transhumance is based on the difference of climate between the mountains (where the herds stay during the summer) and the lowlands (where they remain the winter). Milk, butter and cheese — the dairy products of transhumance — often form the basis of the local population's diet.

Fixed transhumance in Europe

In the past transhumance was widespread throughout Europe.

Scandinavia

In Scandinavia, transhumance is practiced to this day, although the arrival of motorized vehicles has changed its character. The seter is the term for a common mountain or forest pasture used in the summer for transhumance and the mountain cabin which was used as a summer residence. In the summer (usually late June) the livestock is moved to the mountain farm, often quite distant from the home farm, preserving the meadows in the valleys for use as hay.

In Sweden, this system was predominantly used in Värmland, Dalarna, Härjedalen, Jämtland, Hälsingland, Medelpad and Ångermanland.

Due to Norway's highly mountainous nature, it was common to most regions in Norway.

While previously many farms had their own seter, today it is more usual for several farmers share a modernized common seter (fellesseter).

The name for the common mountain pasture in most Scandinavian languages derives from the old Norse term setr. In most of Sweden, it used to mean "forest pasture at a distance from the settlement", whereas it in western Sweden meant "mountain pasture".

The Pyrenees

The transhumance in the Pyrenees involves relocation of livestock (cows, sheep, horses) to the high mountains for the summer months, because farms in the lowland are too small to support a larger herd all year round.

The Alps

The traditional economy of the Alps was based upon rearing cattle. Seasonal migration between the valley and the high pastures was critical in feeding an increased number of cattle and supporting a higher human population.

While tourism and industry contribute today much to the economy in the Alps, the seasonal migration to the high pastures is still practiced in Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland, except in the most frequented tourist centers. In some places, the cattle are taken care of by the local farmer families who move to the higher places, in others, this is the job of herdsmen who are employees of the cooperative owning the pastures.

Austria has over 12 000 sites where 70 000 farmers take care of about 500 000 cattle.

Bavaria has about 1400 sites hosting 50 000 cattle, about half of them in Upper Bavaria and the other half in the Allgäu.

In Switzerland, about 380 000 cattle including 130 000 cows as well as 200 000 sheep are in summer on the high pastures.

Lesotho

The traditional economy of the Basotho in Lesotho is based upon rearing cattle. Seasonal migration between the valley and the high plateaus of the Maloti (basalt mountains of Lesotho) is critical in feeding an increased number of cattle and supporting a higher human population.

While tourism is starting to contribute to the economy of Lesotho, and more people are moving permanently into the Highlands, the seasonal migration to the high pastures is still practised.

Nomadic transhumance

Often traditional nomadic groups settle into a regular seasonal pattern, which has been described by some anthropologists as a form of transhumance. An example of a normal transhumance cycle in the northern hemisphere follows:

Spring — (early April to the end of June).

These movements in this example are about 180 to 200 km from the desert plains in the winter to the higher plateau of the summer pastures, with spring and fall spent in transition.

These regular patterns are distinguished from those of pastoral nomads, who follow a seasonal migratory pattern which varies from year to year.

Nomadic transhumance was historically widespread throughout the less fertile regions of the world.

The Mongols in what is now Mongolia, Russia, and China and the Tatars or Turkic people of Eastern Europe and Central Asia were nomadic peoples who practiced nomadic transhumance on the harsh Asian steppes.

The nomadic Sami people, an indigenous people of northern Finland, Sweden, Norway, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia, practice a form of nomadic transhumance based on the reindeer.

Worldwide transhumance patterns

Transhumance developed on every inhabited continent.

Africa

The Berber people of northern Africa were traditional farmers, living in the mountains relatively close to the Mediterranean coast, or oasis dwellers; however, the Tuareg and Zenaga of the southern Sahara practice nomadic transhumance.

The Maasai and Kĩkũyũ, semi-nomadic peoples located primarily in Kenya and northern Tanzania, have pastoral transhumance cultures that revolve around their cattle.

North America

Transhumance, relying on the use of public land, continues to be an important source of livestock feed in the western United States. The American tradition was based around moving herds to higher ground with the improvement in highland pastures in the spring and summer.

South America

South American transhumance relies on "cowboy" counterparts, the gaucho of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and (with the spelling "gaúcho") southern Brazil, the llanero of Venezuela, the huaso of Chile.

Asia

Transhumance practices are found in temperate areas, above ~1000 m in the Himalaya–Hindu Kush area (referred to below as Himalaya);

Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan all have vestigial transhumance cultures. For regions of the Himalaya transhumance still provides the mainstay of several near-subsistence economies — for example, that of Zanskar in northwest India.

Kyrgyzstan

In Kyrgyzstan transhumance, which never died out during the Soviet period, has undergone a resurgence in the difficult economic times following independence.

Australia

In Australia, which has a large ranch (station) culture, stockmen provide the labor to move the herds to seasonal pastures.

Reference

Adventure Roads in Norway by Erling Welle-Strand, Nortrabooks, 1996.