The cows went up to the alp yesterday. The first lot waking us up nice and early at 6.30 ish with the clanking of the bells.
This is quite a stressful trip for the cows and can lead to injuries and mastitis. The alp farmers need to be quite careful about looking out for problems, especially as they don't as yet know the individual animals or their health.
The first few days of milk, after this event, therefore, is made into a raclette cheese. This cheese apparently being able to take a higher level of bacteria.