January 15, 2019
Sustainable Innovation in Meat Production with Yaks,
Sustainable Innovation in Meat
Production with Yaks, 9/25/11, By Robert Hasse
I'm not sure I can point to a single (one) innovation that made a difference in the business of raising animals for healthy sustainable meat production. It is really a paradigm shift in thinking away from today's commercial beef production methods and expectations; which are truly unsustainable in every way: and towards a new business model based on raising yaks.
Commercial beef production has gross profit margins too small to be able to pay for the true costs of land ownership. There is no way to justify the the costs of investment in the purchase of land to graze commercial beef cows. All commercial beef operations rely on free or cheap land in one form or another; whether it is land inherited from parents (free with no or little monetary investments required), or public land with cheap grazing rights costs, or rental of unused private grazing lands at far below sustainable rates for the value of the land.
Commercial beef cows are hard on the land, trampling and damaging riparian areas, because of their size and weight as well as their dietary habits. They eat the quality grasses and forbes, leaving the weeds and shrubs to expand year to year, causing the pastures to deteriorate year after year. Of course, commercial feedlot practices are devastating to the environment as well as to the health of the animals themselves, and to the humans eating a very unhealthy meat product from these practices.
Emphasis historically in the last 50 years has been for fast growth producing more tender meat in less time. There has been little to no emphasis on feed intake efficiencies (pounds of forage to pounds of gain), or on healthy meat chemistry, or on impact to environment or human health.
I wanted initially to have the "idiot proof animal" . I wanted animals that required the least amount of human input. I was looking for disease resistance, feed intake efficiencies inherent in the animal, calving ease requiring no assistance, self-preservation capabilities in a hostile environment with wild predators, and able to produce a quality tender tasty healthy meat product. Yaks became the obvious choice to meet these requirements.
Yak cows are lighter in weight than commercial beef cows, 600 pounds versus 1100 pounds, causing less damaging impact to the environment, especially fragile riparian areas.
Yaks require far less water than beef cows, not only due to their smaller size, but also due to their extracting more water from their manure prior to defecation.
Yaks require far less feed intake than beef cows. Yaks need 6 pounds of forage to 1 pound of gain, whereas beef cows require 8 to 10 pounds of forage to a pound of gain (depending on the breed size). Note: bison requires 12 pounds of forage to a pound of gain. Yaks utilize far more of the available forage in the pasture by being browsers as well as grazers. Yaks will eat everything in the pasture that is non-toxic. Yaks will eat most weeds, all course grasses that beef cows won't eat, shrubs of all kinds including fresh shoots of course shrubs like sage, willows, etc.
Because yaks are smaller in size, require less feed for heat requirements in the winter due to their thick wool and hair coat, and eat a far wider ranging variety of forages than beef cattle; their stocking rate is 4 times the rate for beef cows. If your land is rated for 1 animal unit per acre, you can stock 4 yaks on that acre. Your production capabilities for pounds of meat per acre are dramatically raised by raising yaks rather than beef cows.
Because yaks can live in drier climates and higher elevations than most beef cattle can survive in, yaks can utilize more acreages unavailable to beef cows.
Yaks require less veterinarian care than beef cattle. Their disease resistance is impressive. We stopped all vaccinations about 10 years ago, because our yaks that did not get vaccinated were healthier than those that were vaccinated. In the many years we have raised yaks, most of which we did not vaccinate, we have never experienced a single bovine disease. West Nile Virus is the only disease that has impacted our herds, and there is no bovine vaccination for that disease. We do use an Ivermectin pour-on for parasites annually. We never have to pull a calf, or assist in any way; and have never experienced any deaths of cows or calves due to calving problems.
Yaks produce a tender small-grained sweet meat that is higher in omega 3's and CLA's than any other red meat, and they do this on grass alone, no grain input. Yak meat is naturally 97% lean overall, yet remains tender and juicy without marbling if not overcooked. Cut out percentages are almost identical to regular beef.
The drawback to yaks meat production is slow growth and smaller size. It takes 3 years to produce a 1000 pound steer ready for butcher. This is the issue that causes some cattlemen to stumble, and not consider yaks for their operations. This is the paradigm shift in thinking that is required to make the change to considering raising of yaks.
If cattlemen can get past the slow growth issue, they can experience an approximate 25% to 30% increase in net profits on the same land requirements that they would get for their beef steers, assuming receiving the same prices per cut of meat. But since the meat is so superior in health characteristics, and is superior in taste; profits can dramatically increase based on higher prices obtainable per cut of meat. When marketed properly, yaks can double or triple your net profits for the same investment in land, money, time and effort.
Marketing of these yak meat products is an essential requirement for success in this business. Education of the public in general about yaks is a big component for success. The American public has little to no knowledge of this animal. And few Americans have ever experienced this wonderful meat product. And the American public has been indoctrinated by the beef industry with a lot of misinformation. It takes a concerted effort to educate the American public in general, and your specific clients to the benefits of this meat.
We are successfully marketing our yaks and yak meat products to produce the profit margins detailed in this letter. We invite other entrepreneurs to join us and participate in the production and marketing of this wonderful animal and its outstanding products.
Involvement with yaks will give you a sense of pride and accomplishment in helping preserve the environment, in supplying a truly superior meat product for the health and enjoyment of mankind, in building a sustainable business model with profits to support the proper use of the beautiful land we love, and to give pioneering people the ability to be self-sufficient in supplying the needs of their own families.
Hoping more families will join us in this effort, Bob Hasse DELYAKS www.yakmeat.us www.yakbreeder.com
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