Before the Agricultural Show, it was rather a manicure salon this Thursday in Castelnaudary (Aude) for certain sheep in the hands of the young competitors of the regional final of the Ovinpiades, the competition of the best shepherds in France. Trimming, as it is called in the profession, is indeed part of the seven practical and theoretical tests on which the shepherds are evaluated.
A passage that Theo fears a little, yet seventh in the national final two years ago. “We have a lot to lose because if we bleed the beast, we lose points. I'm going to insure, ”he tells us. In a specialization certificate Driving a sheep farm at the CFA in Lot, he dreams of settling down. An ambition difficult to achieve for those who, like him, do not come from the agricultural sector. He will once again represent Occitania for the national final at the Salon de l'Agriculture on February 22, alongside three other boys and two girls.
Create vocations
In total, 68 students from 21 agricultural education establishments in Occitania clashed this Thursday, in a good-natured but serious spirit, at the Pierre-Paul Riquet agricultural high school in Castelnaudary. Among them, fifteen girls, proof that "the profession is becoming more and more feminized", explains the organizer Géraldine Pujos.
Beyond the competition, the event is also a means of creating vocations. "Breeding sheep can be a complementary workshop on a farm," she says. It is also necessary to renew the profession since more than one out of two sheep breeders will retire in the coming years.
