Sifanur TAVUS- Oktay POLAT/ ERZURUM, (DHA)- Erdal Karadag (33), a shepherd from Igdir city, married with 3 children, started from Igdir with a flock of sheep and ended in the Karayazi District of Erzurum, 20-day migration journey was watched with great interest by his social media followers. A follower from England sent a gift camera to Karadag, who provides information about shepherding and animal care in his videos to produce better content. Influencer shepherd said that he earns between 5 to 20 thousand Turkish Lira per month from social media.
The migration journey of Erdal Karadag and his family, who set out with the herd in Igdir at the beginning of summer, comes to an end in the Karayazi district of Erzurum. Karadag and his family, who rent a large plateau with their relatives and set up their tents here, prepare their winter shelters, shear and milk their small cattle. Erdal Karadag, who recorded his 20-day migration journey and shared it with thousands of followers on his social media account, tells about the shepherding, animal care and shares many memories to his followers. Karadag said, they stayed in the mountains during the cold nights and made great efforts to protect their animals from wolves.
Karadag uploaded his videos to social media when he went to the mountains to graze animals, he said. Karadag added that he has many followers who are bored of the city and miss nature so his family occasionally accommodate them on the plateau. Karadag, who produces many practical alternative solutions in the natural environment, explained that he wrapped lapel microphone with sheep’s wool to prevent the wind noise.
“THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO RECGONIZE ME WHEREVER I GO”
Erdal Karadag said that he was released after seven years in prison for ‘wounding’ and continued to do his father’s profession, stated that he improved himself culturally in this imprisonment period and he was missed the mountains and his sheep very much. Karadag explained how he started to produce content for social media as follows:
“When it comes to Igdir, apricots and Igdir Plain come to mind. My family has been breeding sheep for a long time. I left Igdir for a while and went to work in Istanbul. In Istanbul, I have jailed due to an unfortunate incident. During the seven years, I missed the mountains, the sheep, the lambs, the dogs. When I was released, I got back Igdir and started farming again. When I started shooting, I had an old phone. The videos disappeared when my phone has broken. Then, I noticed that people started watching the videos. I continued to share videos from time to time. The number of viewers of the videos began to increase. Currently, the number of people who subscribe to my channel has exceeded 42 thousand. My monthly income varies between 5 and 20 thousand Turkish Liras. I shoot videos about sheep grazing, their diseases, how to understand the age of the sheep in nails, how to shear and spray sheep. I also talk about all of these in my daily life. It is very enjoyable, the feedback of my followers is very beneficial. It’s nice to have people take care of it. In the past, when we set out, no one would ask about our condition. Now there are people who recognize me wherever I go.”
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