Use of Pastures by Kyrgyz People
The natural conditions themselves suggested how to use the pastures more effectively, considering their seasonality. The non-simultaneous growth of vegetation in different zonal areas historically determined the sequential use of pastures: koktoo — spring pastures, jaiyloo — summer pastures, kuzdoo — autumn pastures, and kyshtoo — winter pastures, the boundaries of which have mostly remained unchanged to this day. Driving animals to seasonal pastures better provided them with forage, while the variety of grasses created a sort of prevention against infectious diseases. As a result of the alternation and strictly uniform use of pastures, the grass cover was protected from depletion, ensuring its recovery.
This form of using seasonal pastures was widely applied earlier in collective and state farm animal husbandry, allowing for the avoidance of feed imbalances through more appropriate distribution of pastures by seasons of use and the introduction of supplementary feeding for animals.
After winter, plants initially awaken in the plains and foothills, that is, in the lower vertical zone. Here, spring plants with a short growing season usually prevail; before the hot summer days arrive, the seeds of plants in this zone manage to ripen and fall off. These pastures were popularly called koktoo — spring pastures, and the period of time — chöp chykty — the grasses have appeared.
Initially, livestock grazed in the foothills, then on the warmed southwestern slopes. Later, grasses on the northern slopes grew and ripened, and the livestock were driven to them.
With the onset of summer, plants in the lower zones finished their growing season, while the vegetation cover in the upper zones only began to flourish: the time of chöp zhetildi arrived, i.e., the grass reached the height suitable for grazing (the heading phase — beginning of flowering). This period is called ettenuu by the Kyrgyz — meat time, when animals regain the weight lost during winter and gain weight. Then came the ripening time (the phase of fruiting and seed ripening), the time of maylanuu — shearing. During this period, the Kyrgyz said: "In one day, a sheep eats thousands of varieties of grasses."
Long-term studies by botanists confirm how finely all these features of the mountainous region were noted by the Kyrgyz people. The coincidence of maylanuu with the phase of fruiting and seed ripening is quite understandable. During this time, sheep consume not only leaves and young shoots, in which the content of protein, fat, and other nutrients significantly decreases, but also the fruits of various grasses, including plants that are usually inedible or poorly edible (such as Eremurus kodonopsis, and others), as well as ears, spikes, and panicles of cereals.
With the onset of cool weather, closer to autumn, the grasses on the jaiyloo begin to dry out, and the time comes, called by the Kyrgyz chöp kuurady — the grass has dried (end of vegetation). During this time, herders descend to the lower zones and graze numerous herds on autumn and winter pastures, again on the hay in the foothills, on the sunny, southern side of rocky slopes, where there is a lot of ak shybak — wormwood, zhyltyrkan — kochia, and other plants.
All pastures had natural boundaries (ridges, watersheds, rivers, hollows), along which it was easy to outline daily grazing areas, that is, a kind of enclosures. In this system, the pasture around the camp was first grazed, and the sequence of use of its individual sections was mainly determined by the unevenness of the growth and ripening of grasses on different slopes. Then the shepherds with the livestock moved to a new location. The transition from one pasture to another (between seasons) was also determined by the growth and ripening of grasses, so pastures even within one season are located at different altitudes.
