Lucy and I returned Monday from a visit to the National Western Stock Show in Denver. We were able to ‘yak’ with other yak ranchers, attend seminars regarding yak care, fiber harvesting, and yak confirmation. At the annual IYAK banquet we heard a very interesting talk on mapping yak DNA sequences and another presentation on yaks in Europe. We were also able to talk at length with a vender at the Show who is an expert on tanning hides and producing various articles using hides from animals. More on this later when we try to make some interesting articles from an imperfect hide that we have. We also made some good contacts for selling some of our top-of-the-line breeding stock. Lucy’s entry in the fiber arts contest won first place – hurrah. We will post more on that later.

We had an interesting afternoon loading a yak cow that has to go to be made into meat. We ‘rescued’ her and three other yaks from a person who didn’t have time to adequately care for them. This particular cow killed a horse belonging to that person’s daughter, which was the last straw for them. Since we absolutely won’t have a dangerous animal at Mesa View Yak Ranch, she is going to the butcher. The interesting part of the story is that one of the other rescued yaks is a wonderful registered, tame bull named Oscar. We had to load Oscar in the front of the trailer to keep him from ‘interfering’ while we loaded the cow. He jumped into the trailer following a feed bucket and waited patiently for the two hours it took to load her. Loading her took seven cattle panels, four people, and four vehicles all lined up in a row (long story).

Oscar Playing with Large Tractor Tire

Oscar received his registration papers last week and seems to be showing off his new status.

We were afraid that he might throw the tire through the fence so we took it away and gave him a smaller tire.

Oscar Playing with Small Tire

Oscar is ‘The Man’

Oscar took advantage of the warm weather to apply makeup to impress the yak cows.

Minnie May, our six-month-old, imperial heifer loves the attention that our guests from Georgia are giving her.  She was imprinted at birth and loves any kind of attention.  Meg, Anna, and Shelby are spending a week in our ‘yak guest apartment’ enjoying the sights, people, and yaks of the Four Corners Region.