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Murat Çakır (36), who has 3 children, and his wife Feride Çakır (33), who live in the village of Muratlar in the Bayramiç district of Çanakkale, earn their living by raising sheep. Milking takes an hour for the hard work of the couple that begins in the early hours of the barn. The Çakır couple milks 90 sheep with their hands every morning and night and sells their milk, which flavors Ezine registered cheese, to dairy farmers for TL 6 a liter. The couple’s monthly income from sheep’s milk reaches 15 thousand TL.
Agriculture and cattle ranching continue to be the livelihood of many families in the villages of the Bayramiç district of Çanakkale, which is located on the slopes of the Kaz Mountains.
Feride and Murat Çakır’s couple, who have 3 children, also earn their living by raising sheep in Muratlar Village, right next to the Kaz Mountains.
The Çakır couple, who have 110 sheep, go to the pen outside the village early every morning to care for and milk the animals.
When they reach the net, the Çakır couple give their food to the sheepdogs, who are the guardians of the sheep, and then they start the hardest part of the work they do by sharing the 90 sheep they milk.
Feride and Murat Çakır milk their sheep with their hands twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.
The sheep, whose first milking is completed in the morning, head to pastures to feed naturally in the foothills of the Kaz Mountains with a rich plant diversity.
Due to the division of duties with the family, his sons Mustafa, Ramazan and Eren Çakır also clean the pen daily when there is no school.
Sheep that are collected from the pen at night are milked a second time. The couple Murat and Feride Çakır work two hours a day to milk.
THEY EARN 15 THOUSAND TL ON AVERAGE PER MONTH
The Çakır couple claimed that their monthly income reached TL 18 thousand in March and April, when milk production is the highest, and they earn TL 15 thousand per month even though milk production decreases a bit in the remaining months.
The couple, who started in March and sold their milk from milked sheep to dairy farms until the end of August, make their own cheese from the milk they get from milking in September.
Obtaining an average of TL 15,000 per month from sheep’s milk for six months, the couple continues to earn an average of TL 15,000 per month from this business by raising lambs from ewes and selling them for meat in the remaining six months.
‘WE ARE LOOKING FOR SHEEP FAMILY’
Murat Çakır said that they were doing this as a family and that they took care of their sheep in the pen from late March to December, then brought them to the village due to winter conditions. Murat Çakır said that they come to the pen to take care of the sheep in the morning and at night: “I have been raising sheep for 10 years. I have been raising goats before. We take care of our sheep as a family. When there is no school, my 3 children come and clean the pens, I work as a shepherd and my wife does the housework. “She helps me milk the sheep at night. I have 110 sheep. 20 are female. Our milking lasts 2 hours, morning and afternoon. “
‘WE SHEEP ON THE SHEETS ALSO LOOK AT US’
Expressing that sheep and goat farming is carried out in the region for the production of Ezine cheese, Murat Çakır said: “We are producing sheep’s milk for the famous Ezine cheese. We work for the dairy for Ezine cheese. Our animal It is the dairy breed. I buy 1 lamb a year. I work for milk for cheese. We work for sheep. The sheep also take care of us.
Milk production is high in March and April. The weight of milk is 6 liras, and if we buy 3 to 3.5 tons of milk per month, we earn 18 thousand liras in March-April. Then it falls. The most precious milk, according to me, is sheep’s milk with a certain price. Sheep’s milk is essential in cheese. The fat content is high in our region. We feed our sheep in the pastures of the village of Muratlar, at the foot of the Kaz Mountains. Sheep are organically fed on thyme, bush, wheat and ears, ”he said.
‘IT’S NOT AN EASY JOB’
Feride Çakır stated that they went to milk the sheep in the early hours of the morning and said: “We milk the sheep for an hour here. It is not easy to milk them. When there are a lot of sheep, people have pain in their arms while milking them. My wife and I milk at night. I milk half the sheep. “I help each other. I can milk all the sheep myself, “he said.
‘QUALITY MILK PASSES THROUGH BAYRAMİÇ’
İsmail Pehlivan, Chairman of the Bayramiç Chamber of Agriculture, stated that sheep farming has risen to high levels in his districts due to the high prices of sheep’s milk as well as feeding the flora of the Kaz Mountains .
Stating that sheep’s milk, which dairies buy at TL 6 a liter, supports small family businesses in Bayramiç, Pehlivan said: “Right now, sheep farming makes family businesses happy. You know, we’ve geographically marked Ezine cheese. There is no Ezine cheese without sheep and goat milk. Even our Ministry. Explained that quality milk passes through Çanakkale. We say that quality milk passes through Bayramiç. Why does it pass through Bayramiç. In the vegetation Growing on the northern slopes of the Kaz Mountains, the animals feed naturally, which makes us stand out because there is no food additive. ”He spoke.
Yücel Çayıroğlu, president of the Bayramiç Chamber of Agriculture and cattle breeder in Muratlar village, stated that there are approximately 2 thousand sheep in his villages and said: “Sheep’s milk is indispensable in Ezine cheese. Its fat content is high. 60% sheep’s milk is required in the Ezine cheese mix. He said that sheep farming is a profitable business because of the vegetation that our village next to the Kaz Mountains has given us, which has no cost, it can be grazed in the wild, grazing sheep in the wild without food supplements generates quality milk.
(DHA)
