Every year, 17,000 Alpine farmers bring their animals up to the high mountain areas. Some 436,000 cows, cattle and calves as well as over 120,000 sheep, goats and pigs spend summer on 6,672 Alpine farms. Photo: Keystone During the 10th century, farmers ventured higher into the Alps, clearing forests and expanding their pastures up to 2,500 metres above sea level. Their labour continues to shape the image of Switzerland’s mountain landscape to this day. Photo: Keystone The 5,033 square kilometres of summer pasture in the Alps and Jura account for around a third of total land used for farming in Switzerland. Photo: Keystone Every summer, 5,000 tonnes of Alpine cheese are produced on the mountain farms, representing four per cent of the total cheese production in Switzerland. Perhaps not be a tremendous amount, but certainly one with great symbolic power. Photo: Keystone Swiss Review / August 2022 / No.4 31
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