Manuel Rodríguez Pascual writes in his book “La trashumancia, cultura, cañadas y viajes [5ª edición revisada y ampliada, pág. 251] about the bellwether:
During the breed selection of the rams, the opportunity was taken to chose the bellwether - castrated rams that guided the herd; they were indispensable for the management of the herds – which was realized by a colleague, also called “mansero”. >From each 24-26 selected male lambs per year, the most outstanding, the one that would always go ahead of the others would be chosen for this job. There were always 8-10 bellwethers per herd. In order to achieve that the bellwether would react immediately to the energetic voice of the shepherd or to a certain whistle and walk by his side with a cord on his horns, it took a lot of time, expertise and patience.
In our case, besides baptizing and whistling, we also use other remedies………
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