Michigan

[cwhit590]

Yaklady - awesome info! Amazing...you should start a yak thread so we can keep up with your little herd...and learn more yak facts.

So they eat 1/3 as much as cattle? Are they smaller or just more feed efficient? Also, do they require any different fencing than regular cattle? I think I remember seeing a show on Discovery or something where native people would use the yaks for milk too....?

MJ - mmm...that turkey looks good!

 

[miss_jayne]

thanks Caleb....it looked even better in the end....it was SO good. served over a ball of stuffing and a side of Amish White bread that was baked topped with cheese. oh my.

 

[Opa]

Just came in from taking Granny's dog out. Sure am glad I put on the coffee before I went out. That hot coffee sure tasted great. Plus holding the hot cup felt pretty good too.

 

[Opa]

Quote:
Evidently you didn't see the sign he was carrying.

 

[Ooopsy_daisy]

Morning,

Went outside BURRRRRRRRRR its cold. That wind is just a blown'n here up on this hill. I could have let the girls out as the moon is so bright you can see everything perfectly, but dont wanna have them blow'n around the hill in this cold. Think I'll just make them some warm rice with puree apples in it and keep them in today. Or at least until the wind dies down some.

Hope you all stay warm today. Maybe the sun will shine a bit more than it did yesterday?

 

[Opa]

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Most mornings I just have coffee and maybe a slice or two of toast. Now I've got the urge to go into the kitchen and fix some rice for Granny and I for breakfast. Hope just ate some eggs and not being from the south doesn't understand that rice is an excellent breakfast.

 

[Hillbilly Rooster]

Morning all. Wow wish it was legal to hunt during the hunters moon. My Apple tree in the yard was attacked. I have a intruder detector on my apple tree so that I can see the deer and the buck was their making a scrape and broke my detector.

MJ- how was dinner.

Opa- where's my breakfast?

 

[YakLady]

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Awwwww, Oopsy, does that bring back memories! I grew up on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma, and then moved to Dallas where I lived for 18 years. I've only been a Michigander for a few years. Rice n' apples in the morning was such a treat-my grandparents raised me, and Grandma would make that every now and then. YUM! Can I be one of your chickens this morning?

 

[Ooopsy_daisy]

Sure you can YakLady. Come on over. I have rice made in the fridge all the time. Its one of my morning staples for breakfast. Warmed up with a tad bit of milk/cream, apples or raisins and a sprinkle of brown or white sugar. Best breakfast in my opinon. And thats how I found out how much my chickens love cooked rice. From eating breakfast with them outside this summer. They'd get my left overs and loved it. Even when my Cochin Roo got beat up so bad, poor guy couldnt see his eyes were so swollen up, he still ate rice, apples and dry dog food.

My grandmother is the one that started me eating it for breakfast too. That along with cream of wheat with apples or raisins. Boy I sure miss her. Those truly were some of the best days of my life.

Opa hope you and Grammy enjoy your warm breakfast!!!

 

[YakLady]

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Yep. Only 1/3 as much. They mostly just forage and our 16 go through one large round bale of second cutting hay about once/week. A couple times /week we give them half a bag of either all stock or cracked corn, just as a treat. We keep their feed trough in the corral, where the squeeze chute is. Feeding them treats in there keeps them used to coming in and out of it. When we get them all in eating, we usually close all the gates and open the squeeze chute head gate. That way, the only way out is to walk through the chute.

They are a bit smaller than beef cattle, but not too much so. The bulls top out at 1200-1400 lbs. The cows reach about 600-900 lbs at maturity. They start out MUCH smaller, at 25 lbs-very low birthweight, but weather-resistant from the get-go.

Fencing-nothing special. We have 3-rail split-rail fencing, which was already here when we moved in. No electrical fencing required. The little babies often go next door to visit the neighbors (they can just step right through), but they won't go too far away from their mothers before they come back. We could easily fix that, but the neighbors actually enjoy it, and get upset if we don't let the babies come over for awhile in the morning. LOL! They sit out on their deck with their morning coffee and talk to the babies.

Yes, in Tibet (where they're from) the native people use them for just about everything, including milk. Yak do not produce much milk at all. Since they are so fuel efficient, their babies don't need much milk, either. The milk is incredibly rich, and curdles almost immediately after milking. It is extremely difficult to even get any milk out, so we US of A'ers don't even bother. The Sherpas use it for what they call Yak milk tea. It's kind of like a butter put on top of very strong tea. Yakkers who have visited Tibet say it tastes more like a salty broth than tea. They also use yak butter as a fuel source for their lamps, as well as making cheese.

Oopsy Daisy, you're right. The Goldens are the result of both parents having a recessive golden gene, and the offspring occasionally turns out mostly golden. Those are the ones that go for upwards of 7,000.00. Since we're using them solely for meat, we don't care what color they are.

We bought our first herd of 8 for roughly $900.00/yak (you get deals when you buy a whole herd), and our second 8 of 4 cows with babies for around 5,000.00 total (plus shipping). Most of our yak are Trims and Grey-Nose Blacks. We have five Imperials (solid black with black noses-they are worth a little more, even though we didn't have to pay more). Royals, which are black and white with pink noses, go for a pretty penny, too. We don't have any of those. Royals are used mostly for wool.