YAKS MATTER

Me and bull yak Teddy Bear

Why Yaks Matter to Me

I wanted to live sustainably, with little dependence on the use of money, which is inevitably tied to the faulty and tiresome structure of the United States economy.  I wanted a low-maintenance, living, natural resource that could provide me with nourishment, clothing, burdensome labor, deep friendship, and trading goods.  After having spent far more of my time dedicated to my introspective and literary search of a life purpose than to the prospects of formal education and career, I decided that I needed yaks.

A guy named Tad Pucket who owned yaks was buying a piece of property from my dad, and I had done some landscaping work for my dad for which I had not yet been paid.  When I told my dad that I wanted a yak, he paid me by way of having Tad add a yak into the contract at the end of their negotiations.

Not far north of the town of Crested Butte CO, the pavement ends and a rugged four-wheel drive road leads to some abandoned Schofield town sites that my mother’s grandparents bought for under $60 off back taxes in the 1950’s.  At the age of 20, I moved my baby hiefer home with me to the log cabin I had been building off that land with my friend and teacher Steve Griggs.  I named my yak Myrtle after my mother’s grandmother.

In the fall, Steve resumed his professor position at Western State College.   Myrtle and Dozier, my dog, remained my only roommates besides occasional visits from friends and family and my boyfriend Paul Holder.  For a time, I slept with Myrtle on the dirt floor of the cabin and she kept me very warm.  I bottle raised her on sheep milk formula as per Tad’s recommendation.  She believed I was her mother and she followed me wherever I went.  Then Tad asked me to babysit another young yak named Tilly who came and led my Myrtle astray off into the wilderness.  When I finally found the pair after a week of intensive “hunting”, Myrtle sucked on my fingers all the way home.  That’s when Paul helped me build a log corral.  I ended up purchasing Tilly as a companion for Myrtle.  I trained Myrtle for packing.  Tilly remained obstinate.

I moved the yaks to a ranch near Boulder, CO for the winter where Paul and I attended Colorado University…  That summer my father, Bob Stuplich, supplied the materials for Paul and I to build a corral on his 10 acre parcel of land at the Butte Pasture subdivision just south of Crested Butte.  Paul and I got married in Schofield in the fall.  Myrtle was our ring bearer and my mode of transportation to the reception area.  Tilly was uninvited but she broke a log on the corral and crashed the party.  This kind of excitement is to be expected when one includes yaks in one’s affairs.

At 16 months of age, Myrtle and Tilly were bred to Tad’s bull yaks and the next summer they produced three baby heifers!  Myrtle had an Imperial (all black) named Reina and Tilly had grey-nose identical twins named Shupa and Pawnee.  I was determined to Milk Myrtle, and to raise babies that were as delightful to handle as Myrtle had been.  I separated Reina from Myrtle immediately and began milking Myrtle.  Paul helped me build a milking stantion and my parents and neighbors helped with the chore of milking several times a day.

We fed almost all of Myrtle’s milk to Reina for the first week and then we started gradually supplementing with sheep milk formula.  When Pawnee was three days old, we took her away from Tilly, leaving Shupa to nurse on her mother.  I bottle raised Pawnee with Reina and trained Reina for packing.  Tilly became much tamer after her birthing experience and I found that she LOVES to be brushed.  I have used fiber (wool) from my yaks and from our friend Eddy Sanders’ animals to make many functional and artistic fabrics.  I have bred and milked Myrtle for three consecutive years.  Myrtle has packed out the hind quarters of three elk carcasses from the back country for us.

Last year, all five of my first female yaks were bread to Bear, a bull yak from Eddy Sanders’ herd at Grunniens Yak Ranch, and they produced five calves.  This year my dad, Bob Stuplich has started his own yak herd with the twins’ babies named Maia and Sanga, and a bottle baby bull named Copper from Turkey Hill Yak Ranch.  He is going to call his business Yak Yak Yak Yak Yak LLC.

He bought a new stock trailer and drove all three of his calves and my Reina to the 2010 National Western Stock Show in which over 50 yaks form across the country were entered in competition.   Reina won second prize in the halter show for adult females.  Copper won first prize and Sanga won second prize in the halter show for male calves.  Maia won first prize in the pen show for female calves, and Sanga won first prize in the pen show for male calves.  We are now even more proud of our special animals!

Between the two of us, we had a herd of twelve yaks this past summer –a small herd compared to the other yak herds we know, but more than enough for our purposes of keeping personal relationships with each animal so that each can exercise the full potential of his or her yak aptitudes on our farm or on yours.

Since the day I brought home Myrtle seven years ago, the benefits of having yaks in my life have exceeded all of my initial expectations.  They have provided me with material products (ie milk and wool) of finer quality than I had imagined.  They have connected me with other farms and ranches and friends that will always be an invaluable part of my life.  Our pack-trained yaks have proven to be willing and capable workers.  Sales of animals and yak products have paid for their winter feed.  Their loving companionship and spirited dispositions have been more of a joy than anything else they have to offer.  Over all, they have been so low maintenance and so high value, I can’t see why anyone who has the land would not want to share it with a small herd of Tibetan Yaks.