Calascio Sheperd School

The Centre for Training and Promotion of Extensive Sheep Farming – Calascio Sheperd School (L’Aquila) was established to provide advanced training for new shepherds and farmers, equipping them with technical and entrepreneurial skills to encourage generational renewal and protect local traditions. It is the brainchild of Slow Food Italia and D.R.E.Am. Italia, two organisations with extensive experience in promoting and managing biodiversity, particularly in relation to landscapes and agro-pastoral activities, and is part of the cultural, social and economic regeneration programme in Calascio.

The school aims to promote extensive sheep farming as a model of sustainable development for inland and mountain areas and to combine practical training with an innovative narrative of the shepherd’s craft, highlighting its strategic role in landscape conservation, biodiversity and the production of ecosystem services.

Shepherding is not a residual profession, but the result of complex skills that can respond to many of the needs of our time. Shepherds must be a bit of a veterinarian, a bit of an ethologist, but also a forester and a cheesemaker. They must know about botany, geology and meteorology. And to communicate and reach the market, they must also be tech-savvy (Slowfood)

The school’s training structure includes eight intensive masterclasses, each lasting one week, aimed at four main target groups: existing livestock farms, aspiring shepherds, professionals in the agricultural and environmental sectors, university students and recent graduates. Each masterclass will address key issues such as pasture management, dairy and meat processing, predator control, animal welfare and local marketing.

A distinctive feature of the project is its integration with local communities: students will participate in practical workshops at local farms, contributing to the creation of a network of stakeholders to support the school. In addition, the School will organise public training and information events open to the community on topics related to sheep farming.

Download the Shepherd School brochure (in Italian) 

Visit the Calascio school website

The Sheperd school has been realised thanks to the contribution of the cultural, social and economic regeneration pilot project ‘Rocca Calascio – Luce d’Abruzzo’ by the Municipality of Calascio, selected by the Abruzzo Region as part of the PNRR measure of the Ministry of Culture (Line A – M1.C3 – Investment 2.1 – ‘Attractiveness of villages’), funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.