Skemiai Off The Beaten Path

I drove highway 144 in June 2004. First I drove from Kaunas northwards A1 (E67), the main international north-south highway of the Baltic states. It was called Via Baltica and run from Poland northwards, via Kaunas, Lithuania, Riga, Latvia to Tallin, Estonia (ferry to Helsinki, Finland). 37 km north of Kaunas I turned just to highway 144 and drove it 66 km northwards to reach main highway A9 (E 272) and Siaulai.

Lithuanian secondary highway 144 passed through many villages and towns. I visited:
1. city of Kedainiai, east of the highway, turn right when you see the direction sign, on my picture;
2. Dotnuva - awesome church there;
3. Skemiai;
4. town of Seduva - lovely, quiet town with impressive church;
5. city of Siaulai.

Grazing lands along highway 144 were never fenced. Instead, each cow was chained to the ground with longer or shorter, metal chain. Do European Union with its numerous so called "animal's right activists" tolarate such situation of poor cows? Isn't there any law about how long the chain must be? :-)))

Don't look for any long-haired cattle, not mention long-horn cattle. There was none in Lithuania.

Most of Lithuanian cows along highway 144 were black and white. In contrast to, say, Texas cows, they were grazing in small groups. Sometimes I could see even single individuals. Didn't they like any company? Well, some poor farmers used to breed just one cow for milk, I suppose.

Besides cows, I saw horses grazing on meadows along highway 144. They were fewer than cows and I didn't see any horsemen or horsewomen (riders) there. Instead I saw a cart full of hay drawn by single, poor horse driven by Lithuanian old horseman.

I saw a few times in Lithuania cows which were milked with hands by local older women. The Lithuanian cowgirls were often dressed with colorful, local headscarfs. Was it a sign of ecological or poor agriculture?

It was very refreshing scene not so easy to find in Europe, at least in the western half of the continent which was full of beef and milk large factories with automatic milking machines.

Each cow, I saw in Lithuania, had yellow, quite large plaque with a number fixed to an ear. Well, why were they fixed to both ears of each cow?

Since Lithuania joined European Union on May 1, 2004, all cows must be registered. It's no way to sell any beef or cow's milk without having the passport with a number of a cow.

There were never ending green (in June) meadows along highway 144 close to Skamiai. It was flat and agricultural area of Lithuania. There were small groups of cows and... horses grazing.

No traffic, no noice, no air pollution, no people but blue sky, green grass, field flowers, bees (watch for them), cows and horses. Not so easy to find in many areas of Western Europe nowadays...

I met this cart full of hay on the beaten path, driving highway 144, close to Kedainiai. But it was off the beaten path in Europe and in Lithuania as well, in the 21th century (2004). Driving like crazy here and there around Lithuania I met them only a few times on secondary roads in June 2004.

Were they the last carts drawn by poor horses in Europe? Well, maybe in European Union countries, just in case... half of Europe lies futher east.