transhumance

laitumenvaihto The seasonal movement of people, with their cattle or other grazing animals, to new pastures which may be quite distant.
2005 June 17, C. J. Moore, "http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/16/opinion/16iht-edmoore.html Meanwhile: With a hop-hop-hop and a bottle of Swiss bubbly," New York Times (retrieved 20 Aug 2014):

There are rites of spring in the mountains, and this week I followed the transhumance, the annual movement of cattle, from their lower valley winter quarters up to the higher pastures.