The National Park Administration of Kiskunság is renovating indigenous animal farms

The Kiskunság National Park Administration is spending nearly HUF 500 million in European Union support to renovate indigenous animal farms and purchase equipment and machinery, the organization told MTI.

(Photo: Pixabay)

Mónika Kiss, head of the ecotourism and environmental education department of the Kiskunság National Park Administration (KNPI), said: the aim of the project is to create and develop the infrastructure necessary for the maintenance of native livestock that manages the grasslands and lakes of Upper Kiskunság and the grasslands around Lake Kolon. Tractors, mowers, balers, grain seeders, cattle and horse trailers were purchased for the management of fields connected to the areas and habitats maintained with agricultural methods for nature conservation purposes.

The Izsák-Páhi indigenous livestock farm, which is home to the breeding of Hungarian gray cattle and Furioso-North Star, has been renovated

The head of the department emphasized: the priority task of the directorate is the gene preservation of native domestic animals. They have a decisive role in the gene conservation activities carried out by breeding the Hungarian domestic buffalo, the Hungarian gray cattle and the Furioso North-Star – Mezőhegyes half-blood horse. The goal of gene preservation and the task of nature conservation management through grazing are fulfilled together by maintaining the herds of domestic domestic animal breeds.

KNPI has been involved in the breeding of Hungarian gray cattle and its utilization for nature conservation purposes since the mid-1990s.

The board was given the task of further breeding a stock with a very long history and high genetic value. Among the old domestic animal breeds, the gray cattle was the first to be protected as a first-class gene reserve, which is domestically bred, linked to the domestic landscape, and sufficiently separated from other breeds.

The Furioso-North Star variety was declared a National Treasure in 2004

Due to its low number of individuals, which means around 500 breeding mares and 80 breeding stallions, it is classified as a protected native animal species. The Kiskunság National Park Administration started breeding the breed in 2009, when they entered the Furioso-North Star National Horse Breeding Association with two mares. The primary purpose of keeping their current horse stock is to carry out field management tasks and breed the Furioso-North Star breed, preserve its genetic material, and breed it based on classic Mezöhegyes principles. Mónika Kiss added that the Kunszentmiklós large-scale animal farm of the Kiskunság National Park Administration is expected to be renovated as part of the supported project.

MTI