Small Farmers in Hungary

by Balazs Kiss of Durango, CO

The history of farming in Hungary:

Hungary is traditionally an agricultural state. At the end of the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century, Hungary was the pantry for most of Europe. The huge agricultural production was based on the unique farmers methods, which survived for hundreds of years. Hungarian meat export was mostly beef from the Hungarian Gray Cattle. Sheep and pork raising were also very significant.

After the Second World War, Hungary and the Middle-European countries became Communist states. The Communist propaganda destroyed the small farmers and later the farmers assembled into the TSz (Farmers Association). This organization was lead by Communist leadership. Almost every town and village had one or more TSz. The TSz-es were characterized by large (more than 40 hectares) fields for one plant specie. The animal raising resulted in big buildings with high capacity for more than 1000 cattle or sheep. Hungarian agriculture was centralized by the Communist government until 1989.

Cattle raising in Hungary:

Hungarians raise traditionally two kinds of cattle; these are the Hungarian grey cattle and the Hungarian piebald cattle. The first is a unique breed, and was the main cattle of Hungary one thousand years ago. The second was developed in the beginning of the 20th century. In the Hungarian villages, ten years ago almost everybody had dairy cows. Now fewer people have cows in the villages, but we can find some. The farmers awake at thirty past four a.m. they go to milk the cows in a building, what belong to the family house. For the milking they use one-personal milking machine. The procedure needs about half an hour. Then the cows start to go, if the village has one, to the main square; if not, to the main road, with the farmer. At six a.m. the farmers leave the cows with the cowboy, who drives the herd to the grassland. The herd spends all day outside of the village. They can get water at a unique Hungarian well, called “gémes”-well. At six p.m., the cows walk home individually to the farmers house. We have a funny saying in my country. The right translation is “He is looking, like the cattle, for the new gate.” The saying means, when the farmer painted his big garden-door, and the cattle arrived at afternoon, they were afraid of the new color. They were just looking at it, but did not go to the barn. The next milking is right after their arrival home. In Hungary we feed the cattle some corn and grain after each milking.

The Sheep on the Grate Hungarian Flatland:

My country has the biggest grass-land in Middle Europe. The quality of the grass here is the best in all of Europe. Raising sheep is one of the most important parts of the Hungarian agriculture. Fortunately the farmers use the traditional ways now. We have a special Hungarian building for the cattle and the sheep (in the EU we use this building mostly for sheep) called “seggenu?lQ hodály”. The sheep spend the night in this construction. The farmers live outside of the villages or towns in the summertime. Forty years ago the workers and their whole family lived with the animals all year, but not now. Now the farmer has a small house, near the sheep, and he goes to his family almost daily in the town.

The sheep rancher starts the day with the song of the larks. In summer, when the sheep have lambs, and they need longer feeding time, they start at 4 until 5, when the larks start to sing. In early spring time, when sheep don’t need the longer feeding season, they start at seven am, like the larks in spring time. From the turn of the nineteenth century is a saying, that the lark is the alarm clock of the shepherd.

In my homeland we don’t use hot fences, but shepherd dogs. The shepherd dogs are the best friends of the Hungarian shepherd. They sleep together with the shepherd, they eat the same food, like the shepherd.

Beekeeping in Hungary:

Hungary has many beekeepers because we have a lot of wild flowers around the country. The traditional Hungarian bee house called

“Grate Boconádi” is the most popular bee house, that they use here. The population of my home town is fifteen thousand citizens, but we have more than twenty beekeepers. The majority of Hungarian honey is wattle, rape and mixed honey. We sell the products mostly to international factories, which sell the honey on EU markets everywhere in the Union.

Geese:

In my country one of the most important agricultural products is the goose liver. Hungary is producing 80 percent of the whole world goose liver product. This is 1,600 tons per year.

Our geese are produced mostly by big factories, but the method that we use is about five hundred years old. To make the goose liver bigger, our farmers insert a small pipe into the goose’s neck. Then the farmer puts corn into the goose. This method sounds like stress or offensive for the goose, but it’s not true. Scientific experiments proved that it is not painful for the animal. The farmers repeat the process weekly two or more times. Finally the goose liver will be three times bigger than it is usually.

The garden of the grandparents:

My family is a lucky family, because I have my grandparents. Fortunately a lot of Hungarians have their grandparents in the villages. Namely in Hungary if we need some fresh eggs or vegetables, we don’t go to the grocery store, because most of our grandparents have their own organic garden.

Most of them have a pig, in every house, about twenty chickens and a big garden, with all of the vegetables that their grandchildren need. This farming doesn’t produce any dollar income, but makes the life of the families much less expensive.

The butchering of the pig is a huge annual happening in the villages. The whole family assembles to the grandparent’s house. The men clamp the pig, and the grandfather kills it because this job is very respectable in the Hungarian families. Then every relation helps to make food from the pig. Sometimes the pork meat is enough for the whole year for three families.

The future of small farming in Hungary:

We Hungarians know that one way to have sustainable agriculture is using small farming. My country has every facility, such as excellent soil, one thousand year old traditional experience and hard-working farmers.

Now we have a ruining in the society. The villages are empty. The children of the farmers can’t find any jobs in agriculture, so they are moving to the big cities. In the EU the small farmers cannot remain in the competition against the huge West European factories.

The people are buying their food in the grocery store, not in the markets of the villages, because to sell the organic food in the markets is almost impossible for the farmers. They can sell the products outside Hungarian to processing plants for ridiculous prices.