In wintertime from November to mid-May, the herds stay in the small barns near the villages. Then the individual herd are brought together in bigger units. This units move up to the pastures between 1'300 and 1'800 meters, called Les Mayens. From mid-June to mid-September, the herds stay together on the high mountain pastures mostly owned in common and located between the forest line at 2'500 meters near the glaciers.

On these Alpages there are about 40 to 160 cows. From the time the animals are grazing in springtime until they return to their individual farm in mid-October, after a brief stay in Les Mayens, no additional fodder is distributed to the animals.

This nutrition mode of grazing is very closed to the nature and respects the environmental policy of the cattle breeding in Valais.

As the totality of the Hérens herds is kept in transhumance, temporal gradation of calvings is therefore impossible. 80 percent of the calves will born between October and December and only 20 percent between January and April. With 40 percent of all births, November is the most fertile month of the year.