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08-01-2004 16:16 |
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The 14th parade of the original Istrian oxen was held in Kanfanar Laurel wreath goes to boskarin Jelen Autor Franjo Žeravica KANFANAR - Last Saturday many Istrians and tourists came to Kanfanar for the 14th time, to see the last Istrian oxen - boskarins - which have plowed the fields for centuries and helped the farmers do many difficult chores. Like last year, this time to the parade came 22 oxen out of 42 that exist in Istria today. They selected the heaviest, most obedient and the best looking boskarins. For the weighing of the horny giants, the winner was Mario Gasparini Staver, whose two oxen weighed 1158 and 1075 kilograms (about 2316 and 2150 pounds respectively) received first and third prize and the second went to Gino Bernobic, which weighed 1142 kilograms.For the old fashion plowing with the wooden plow, the most obedient were the pair of Gino Bernobic, the second and third places took Vergilio Bresic and Mario Gasparini. Using a new criterion they judged the best looking boskarin where the points of the judges and public were taken into account. The first place of 1500 kuna and the laurel wreath was received by Jelen of Verner Buzleta, the second the boskarin of Anton Maras and third that of Libero Volcic. This year's exhibition was conducted in the shadow of a governmental decision to cut the subsidy for boskarins and to halve the subsidy for the seeding of original Istrian cattle from 7000 to 3500 kuna."Our union of cattle breeders has been in effect for the last 15 years and has 70 members who have a total of 220 original breeding cattle. Government's subsidies helped a lot in saving these dying breed of animals, but now they are in danger of extinction because the cattle growers are planning the sale and slaughter of young heifers", said the president of the union Aldo Stifanic, who has 27 breeding animals and five boskarins. Regional governor Ivan Jakovcic brought some optimism to the owners of these boskarins by donating 100,000 kuna in the name of the regional Istrian government. Besides that, 18 counties signed an agreement of subsidy for the castrated bulls (boskarins) so that each owner of a boskarin will get about 5000 kuna, providing an incentive to protect the Istrian oxen from extinction which, in the legend, was used by Veli Joze to plow the Istrian land. Source: |
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