Alpabzug 2026: When the Cows Come Home Three Weeks Early

Late August, somewhere in the Emmental: normally you hear them before you see them - a distant chime drifting slowly down the mountainside. This year, many valleys stayed silent. The cows were already down. Not because the grass up top had run out on schedule, but because this summer it simply stopped growing back.

That makes the Alpabzug of 2026 a different affair: earlier, quieter, and in some places cancelled altogether. Time to look at both - the custom that makes it special, and the numbers behind this summer.

What the Alpabzug is - and how big it is economically

Every June, cows, goats and sheep are driven up to the high pastures in the Alpauffahrt. They stay roughly three months while, down in the valley, the grass grows back for winter. As the nights turn cooler and grazing thins out, the Alpabzug begins somewhere between late August and late September: the orderly return of the herds to the valley, often accompanied by the whole village.

This is no folkloric sideshow. Switzerland's summer grazing area covers around 6,700 working alps on more than half a million hectares - roughly a third of the country's agricultural land. Close to 560,000 cows and cattle plus several hundred thousand sheep and goats spend the summer up there, and the result is some 5,000 tonnes of alpine cheese each year: about four per cent of total Swiss cheese production.

Alpine summer 2026: the driest in decades

The figures leave little room for interpretation. From April to June, Switzerland received just 56 per cent of normal rainfall (1991-2020 reference period) - tied with 1976 for the lowest value since 1901. At 168 measuring stations, or 41 per cent of all stations evaluated, the rainfall deficit since April hit a record. July piled on: 3.2 degrees above normal, making it the second-warmest July since records began in 1864, with widely below-average rain and some regions seeing less than 30 per cent of their usual July total (MeteoSwiss).

The waterways told the same story. Between 1 June and mid-August, more than 40 per cent of measuring stations recorded new low-water records and almost 60 per cent record water temperatures. Lake Zurich, Lake Walen and Lake Constance all dropped below their previous seasonal lows (Federal Office for the Environment). What those low levels mean for rivers and public baths we looked at in late July. MeteoSwiss put the obvious question in the title of its own blog post: was this the summer of the future?

What that means up on the alp

A cow does not only eat grass - up on the alp she drinks up to 100 litres of water a day. Once the spring runs dry, the alpine season is over, whatever the calendar says.

In the Domleschg valley in Graubunden, the animals stayed on the pasture for 68 days this year instead of the usual 90 or so - a good three weeks short. Alpine master Alois Abt described the pastures to Swiss broadcaster SRF in three words: «dried out, grazed bare, dead». And on the water: «not a drop comes out any more». On Alp Gummen in canton Schwyz the cows had to come down around ten days early, and in the Jura farmers pulled the first cattle off the alp back in July. One hay merchant there had orders for 130 lorry loads - he was able to deliver 13.

Flowers, bells - and the festivals that did not happen in 2026

The most striking feature of the Alpabzug is the cows themselves: huge flower wreaths, elaborate bouquets tied between the horns, and the largest, heaviest bells the farm owns. This decoration is not for show, it is a statement. Only if the alpine summer passed without serious misfortune - no animal fell, none fell ill - do the cows wear the full display. If something went wrong, they come down bare, or wear at most a small fir branch as a quiet mark of mourning.

In 2026 that custom took on an unexpected relevance. The Emmentaler Alpabfahrt, scheduled for 18 September, was cancelled on 11 August - «for the welfare of the animals, due to the ongoing drought and shortage of feed and water», as the announcement put it. The traditional descent at Ruthi in canton St. Gallen on 22 August met the same fate: the animals had to come down at short notice and the festival was called off. One Emmental herder summed it up in the farming press: «I have never experienced anything like this.»

An Alpabzug without flowers is an honest thing. An Alpabzug that does not take place at all is a new one.

Did you know? The largest alpine bells, known as Treicheln, can weigh more than ten kilograms. Usually only one is worn per animal, hung from a broad, often hand-embroidered leather collar called the Kuhband.

Chasteilet: sharing out the cheese - with less of it this year

On many alps, the milk of several farmers is made into cheese together: shared pasture, shared work, shared reward. At the Chasteilet, usually held around the same time as the Alpabzug, the cheese matured over the summer is divided among the participating families according to a centuries-old formula - the more milk you contributed, the more wheels you receive. The alpine cooperative records it precisely, and the date remains a fixed social event in the mountain calendar.

In 2026 the stack is smaller. If the cows are back in the valley three weeks early, three weeks of alpine milk are missing - and with it the wheels it would have become. The Swiss Alpine Economy Association expects below-average alpine cheese production this year.

Less milk - but what about the quality?

Heat stress in dairy cows is well documented: the animals eat less, give less milk, and fat and protein content drop. The Gruyere trade organisation expects around ten per cent less alpine Gruyere in 2026. Gruyere AOP and Tete de Moine AOP are affected too; in the Jura it is particularly hard to source silage-free dry fodder that complies with the production standards. Christa Brugger of the Swiss Milk Producers described the situation in mid-August as «very tense», and Olivier Isler, director of the Gruyere trade organisation, put it plainly: only rapid rainfall and a return to normal temperatures can resolve it. The one piece of good news - cheese stores are well filled, so supply is secure through to the end of the year.

On flavour, things look better than you might fear. On Alp Gamplut near Wildhaus (1,340 m), 16 tonnes of alpine cheese were made over the summer, slightly less than the year before. Co-operator Thomas Gotte told the St. Galler Tagblatt in late July: «Right now we have very good quality.» Continuous laboratory testing is part of the routine anyway - and the fact that alpine cheese does not taste exactly the same every year is part of the product: it reflects what grew on the pasture. In short: the quantity has clearly suffered in 2026, the quality has held up so far.

And the winter? What can already be said

There is no reliable seasonal forecast for the Alps - anyone telling you today how the winter of 2026/27 will turn out is guessing. A strengthening El Nino event is measurable, but its effect on alpine weather remains uncertain. What can be said, however, is the state mountain farms are in as they head into winter.

Fodder is tight. According to a survey by the farming paper Schweizer Bauer, only around a quarter of farms have enough hay for the winter. Prices have moved accordingly: field-dried hay cost less than 25 francs per 100 kilos last winter, today it is close to 35 francs, and ventilated Swiss hay in large bales fetches 45 to 47 francs. The federal government responded by lifting import duties on hay and grass silage as of 1 August 2026; fodder maize can be imported duty-free from 15 August to 31 October 2026.

Herds are shrinking. In calendar weeks 23 to 30, according to industry body Proviande, around 23,900 cows were slaughtered - against 18,740 in the same period last year, roughly 27 per cent more. Peter Bosshard, managing director of the Swiss Livestock Traders Association, told SRF: «in this severity, that is a new phenomenon». Cows sold off now to get through the winter will not be on the alp next spring.

The water balance needs time. Lakes, rivers and groundwater do not recover from a thunderstorm; they recover from sustained autumn and winter precipitation. If that fails to arrive, the 2027 alpine season starts with half-empty reservoirs rather than full ones.

And if it gets worse?

That is exactly the uncomfortable answer from climate research. The Swiss climate scenarios CH2025, published in November 2025 by MeteoSwiss together with ETH Zurich, conclude that summer droughts will become more frequent and more intense. In a world three degrees warmer, a drought that currently occurs roughly once a decade would occur about every three years - and be some 44 per cent more intense.

What that means for the fodder base was calculated by Agroscope together with the Swiss Farmers' Union for the years 1990 to 2021: extreme drought costs Switzerland 30 to 40 per cent of its grassland yield, in unfavourable cases up to 1.2 million tonnes of dry matter - out of a total production of roughly 5.5 million tonnes.

There are remedies, and they are unspectacular: water pipelines, reservoirs, rainwater catchment. Othmar Schelbert, president of the Schwyz alpine farming association, reduces it to a simple formula - those who invested in their water supply are getting through, those who did not are in trouble. Add to that adjusted stocking rates, earlier planning, and a willingness to end a season early when needed. That is precisely what happened in many places in 2026. It was not capitulation, it was animal welfare.

What you can do - and why alpine cheese matters this year

Two things, quite concretely. First: if you want to watch an Alpabzug, check shortly beforehand whether it is actually taking place. In 2026, dates were brought forward or scrapped at short notice - the animals do not follow the festival programme. Second: buy alpine cheese, on the alp itself or at the village shop. Value is not created in the summer grazing area by subsidies alone, but by the cheese actually being eaten. In a year when the quantity is smaller anyway, every wedge counts double.

And if you want to understand what actually goes on inside a wheel: cheesemaking scales down surprisingly well. We walk through curdling, cutting the curd and ripening step by step in our guide to making your own cheese - and if you would rather just try it, The Ultimate Cheese Making Kit has everything you need for a first batch of fresh cheese. It will not be alpine cheese, of course. But it is a very direct way to grasp why three missing weeks of alpine milk cost wheels in the end.

How did your summer look?

Whether decked in flowers or entirely understated, the Alpabzug shows how closely farming, weather and tradition are bound together in Switzerland. This year more clearly than most. Did you see an Alpabzug in 2026, or was yours cancelled? And what makes a proper start to autumn for you? Tell us - we read every reply.

Sources: MeteoSwiss (climate bulletins and blog, July/August 2026), Federal Office for the Environment (drought and water temperatures, August 2026), Swiss climate scenarios CH2025, Agroscope/Swiss Farmers' Union (grassland study), Proviande, Federal Office for Agriculture, SRF, Schweizer Bauer, BauernZeitung, St. Galler Tagblatt, municipality of Sumiswald. As of 24 August 2026.