Definition of Livestock Way

It is called via livestock to those transhumant (mobile) roads that link places destined for grazing so that the ranchers and shepherds can take their cattle to the best pastures taking advantage of in some way the best weather, to ports or high pasture areas Mountain in the summer, or to flatter areas with a more temperate climate during the winter.

In Spain these livestock routes constitute 125 thousand kilometers of road destined for transhumant cattle and is equivalent to about 450 thousand hectares.

In legal terms, these routes turn out to be public domain goods for which the ownership of the same is exercised by the autonomous communities.

Among the types of livestock routes we can find the following: ravines, ropes, trails, resting places and counters.

As for the dimensions they have, these will depend on the administrative act from classification, that is to say, through this the width, the layout, the existence and the name that is given to it will be determined.

In the present these width values ​​are respected and followed: real gorge (75.22 meters), cord (37.71 meters), path (20.89 meters) and streams (below the dimension that has a sidewalk).

Meanwhile, in addition to the livestock route itself, there are additional elements whose mission has been to complete and assist these networks of livestock roads, such as resting places (widening of the cattle track so that the cattle spend the night there), watering holes (wells that coincide with a river, stream or lagoon), sheepfolds (space in which the flock spends the night), landmarks (signs), royal ports (place where the taxes established by the crown were collected), accountants (steps narrow ones where it is easier to count the winner), bridges, huts (the homes of transhumant shepherds), wool laundries, livestock societies, among others.

Themes in Via Livestock