The Western Province is an area characterized by the tough races that take place here. Being mainly formed of medium-sized associations, however, the western province manages to provide many national champions every year in different categories of competitions. Statistically, for the 2020 season, this province has a very good number of pigeons and fanciers, as will be seen in the analysis below, which implies, at least theoretically, that they are again very likely to fight with the fanciers in the other provinces for the national trophies.As the name suggests, the province is formed by the county associations from the western border of Romania, starting with Caraș-Severin and Timiș, continuing with Arad, Bihor and Sălaj, the last two being Satu-Mare and Maramureș. If we were to make a division into categories, we would have to say that in the West all categories are strongly played, but somewhat differentiated by associations.

Caraș-Severin is the most powerful racing pigeons association in the Western Province; Arad, Bihor, Timiș and Satu-Marefollows it closely

The Caraș-Severin Columbophile Association, led by Daniel Pîslă, is the largest of the seven associations that form the western province. Around 300 members compete every year in Caraș-Severin, and the constant number of pigeons employed in the first stages of the past seasons was around 10-12.000. Somehow things will be the same for this season, with the mention that the number of pigeons will be slightly higher, about 14,000. A little higher on the map, in Timiș, the 2020 season will start with at least 120 fanciers and over 8,000 pigeons. If we take into account the fact that in 2019, Timiș engaged a little over 6,000 pigeons in the first stage and there were only 106 fanciers who participated, we can see a very consistent growth, both in the pigeons and in the fanciers numbers. Arad Columbophile Association is expected to start the season with about 130 fanciers and around 8,500 pigeons. Thus, we could say that the situation is slightly increasing compared to last year, for example, when at the first stage of the season 7,125 pigeons and 126 fanciers participated. In Bihor, the season will start with about 140 members and about 8,300 pigeons, being the association in which we find the most obvious numerical growth. The first stage organized in Bihor last season lined up 117 fanciers and 3,791 pigeons. The “beneficiaries” of a very difficult 2019 season, fanciers from Satu-Mare hope that things will get better this year.So far, they rely on 130 fanciers for the first stage of the season and almost 9,000 pigeons, slightly better than the beginning of last season.

Maramureș and Sălaj, two associations with potential

Maramureș and Sălaj associations are two of the most competitive in the western province, but also in the country.In the two competes several national champions of Romania in different categories, such as the team Robas + Bucaciu, Nicu One or the Vlashin Brothers from Maramureș, or Culda Family and team Fekete + Lucaciu from Salaj. In Maramureș, the 2020 season will start with about 140 fanciers and about 5,000 pigeons.

In Salaj, for 2020, 80 fanciers have announced their intention to participate in competitions, the representatives of the association expecting a number of 4,000 pigeons engaged for the first stage. This means that we’ll witness an obvious increase in the number of fanciers, because last year, Salaj had only 67 fanciers.Applying the same final calculation, the approximate numbers of the Western province for this season are as follows: 1,040 fanciers and nearly 57,000 pigeons.