On the alm

A cow makes “MUH!” 208 mountain farmer cows are hard work. But give the best milk! We visiting Veronika and Josef Moser on the over 500 year old Rotwandalm. It is 1,528 meters above everything – and right in the heart of the Karwendel.

 

The Rotwandalm in the Karwendel has 212 employees in midsummer. Four of them have two legs. The rest four. Up here, cows can still be real beef cattle: During the day they let the mountain sun burn on their fur, they give milk twice a day – and otherwise they can really push off their horns at 1,500 hm. If you had any … Their meals are also 100 percent vegan and organic: the best Karwendel herbs. From the beginning of June to the 25th of September, a good 200 head of “fief cattle” graze on the mountain meadows in the upper part of the Achensee. As befits for happy cows. 100 young animals spend the summer in the altitude training camp in order to stay healty – and to get fit and sporty.

 

With “Alma”, “Hirsch”, “Brave” and the other 105 dairy cows – as with the 100 cattle – only grass, flowers and herbs are on the menu. If the alpine cow is healthy and alert, milk and cheese taste twice as good! The alarm clock rings at six o’clock. Every morning. For four months. A farmer knows no public holidays. Anyone who is a mountain farmer, like Josef Moser from Reith im Alpbachtal, certainly doesn’t. Mountain farmer means: steeper fields, longer working days, more manual work. But also more nature, no valley rush, wider horizon. But that’s exactly what the Mosers want – 600 meters above Lake Achensee and 1500 meters above the things.

 

Josef and his wife Veronika are in the fifth generation of farming
the Rotwandalm on the sunny side of the Karwendel. The Alm is an agricultural community of three owners. Josef Moser is the chairman. The alpine hut, first mentioned in 1450, sits enthroned on a high plateau between Achensee and Bächental, protected from wind and weather by Demeljoch (1923 m) in the west and Juifen (1988 m) in the east. Across from that: the Karwendel main ridge
with Birkkarspitze (2749 m), Laliderer Spitze (2620 m) and Lamsenspitze (2508 m). Up here – on one of the most beautiful alpine pastures in the Karwendel Alpine Park – there is a lot to do from six in the morning to nine in the evening: “Schwenden” – means cleaning the Alm areas of deciduous and coniferous trees and alm weeds -, “Fencing”, making firewood, setting up shoot paths and so on. And of course not to forget: organize the full board for the 208 summer guests.

 

The Karwendel


On this side and beyond the most beautiful green border between Bavaria and Tyrol, the herb meadows bloom particularly succulently. Flora and fauna are literally excellent up here. The Karwendel has just been chosen as the “Nature Park of the Year 2020” among 46 nature parks in Austria. So if you are a full board guest and spend your summer freshness at 1,500 meters in the middle of the excellent nature park of the year, you get the best from the Karwendel: intact nature full of healthy grasses and herbs, special climate, pure mountain spring water, enriched with valuable minerals.

Genetic engineering? No thanks! Concentrate? Dear herbs!


And instead of milking robots, Josef relies on manual labor. Up here on the Rotwandalm, the cows belong to the family. Of course, the Mosers know all of their 208 summer guests by name. “But also their peculiarities!” Says Josef Moser. “The Weix is ​​the leading cow, it is always the first at the alm, Wally is always the last.” Up here, a cow can still be a cow. And when the alpine cow is happy and healthy, the very best milk flows. 2500 liters. The 108 good-natured guests who spend the summer on the Rotwandalm give that much milk every day. And what about the milk? Every second day the milk truck comes up the narrow gravel road, pumps the valuable raw material into the stainless steel tank and drives it down to Wörgl in the Inn Valley. The mountain milk is not delivered anywhere in the middle of nowhere, but only to “Tirol Milch” in Wörgl. Everyone is talking about sustainable and regional – Veronika and Josef Mosers 208 animal employees do something for it!

 

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