Yak Rancher Robert Hasse Says He is Raising the Perfect Animal
10/22/14 | By Krista Sherer |
MONTROSE – As far as Robert Hasse is concerned, the yak is the animal of the future. Hasse, the owner of Del Yaks, who has been a yak rancher for over 15 years, believes that the quality of their meat, as well as the yak’s intelligence and robust nature, makes it the best livestock choice for ranchers in the Rocky Mountain area.
Finding himself in early retirement after selling his medical battery business, Hasse and his family decided to raise livestock on a ranch they owned bordering National Forest lands in northern Nucla.
Hasse, who had been attending the National Western Stock Show for over 10 years,was close to settling on a few cattle breeds when he ran into some yak ranchers at the show.
“We wanted something that could handle themselves up against the National Forest, defend themselves against wild animals, be disease resistant, easy to handle, and have as little necessary human interaction as possible,” Hasse discovered.
“The yak guys that showed up at the National Western Stock show presented some interesting claims that worked with what I was looking for,and they were also giving away free yak burgers. When I tasted one, I knew that was exactly what I wanted.”
According to Hasse, yak meat tastes clean and sweet. It tastes more like beef than any other animal, and unlike elk and buffalo meat, does not have a gamey flavor.
Hasse says yak is one of the healthiest meats available; according to his website, www.yakmeat.us, yak meat is 95 percent to 97 percent fat-free overall, and very juicy, thanks to a high percentage of Omega 3 oils, CLA’s ( Conjugated Linoleic Acids ), oleic acids and stearic acids.
It’s also low in palmitic acid, which is bad for us (boasting 30 percent less than beef than do beef fats, and 120 percent less than beef meat), and is higher in protein, solids, minerals, and vitamins than beef; while scoring much lower in saturated fats, cholesteral, triglycerides, and calories than beef.
When Hasse first started, he wanted the rarest breed he could find, and so purchased 13 golden yaks; he now has a total of 175. “We bought all of the golden genes in the country that we could find,” he said. “Anybody who had one, we bought it.”
Most yaks are black or grey with a touch of white. Hasse, knowing the golden color was a recessive gene, decided to breed his yaks so they would all have a strain of golden in their bloodline. Del Yaks is now known as the foundation of the golden yak herd, featuring the most diverse breeding stock in North America.
Yaks are very hearty animals, Hasse says. “We do no vaccinations whatsoever. They have never had a bovine disease that I am aware of. They are very disease-resistant. We do parasite control, like any cattle breed, but one of the best things about the yak is their nature. They are very easy to deal with and very easy to handle.”
In temperament, the yak is intelligent (more so then beef cattle), and uses facial recognition to place a new creature of any kind. A dominant species, yaks do want to be in charge of everything in their pasture, and have been known to test or bluff-charge humans. That bluff-charge is intended to scare but not hurt humans, Hasse explained. “They are not mean. It’s only a test. Their goal is not to hit yo;, their goal is to get you to move.”
When Hasse first got into the business, he knew nothing about yaks; with no-one to teach him, he had a few standoffs with his yaks.
“They can run at you 90 miles an hour, and you either can not move, or you run at them. It’s a game of chicken,” Hasse said. “As long as you do it right they will either stop 3 feet in front of you, going from 90 mile an hour to a dead stop, or they will brush right by you without touching you. In either case, if you don’t flinch or move back from your position, you are the boss, you win and they will never test you again.”
Colorado is one of the best locations in the U.S. for yaks, with its high elevation, cold climate and low humidity. Yaks do suffer slightly in the summers here in Montrose County, Hasse said, “But mostly, they like shade in the summers and water to put their feet in. Montrose has a lot of water in the Uncompahgre Valley, and they love walking in the ditches and ponds. This is ideal for them.”
Hasse’s yaks offer wool as well as meat. “They have outstanding wool. It’s just like cashmere,” Hasse said, with physical characteristics “virtually identical to cashmere. Raw off the animal you can get $4 an ounce; a yearling can produce 4 to 5 pounds of wool. So the reoccurring money can be good.”
A yak cow will eat one-quarter the amount that a beef cow requires, and drink one-quarter the amount of water, and weighs about 600 pounds (roughly half the weight of a beef cow), making yak herds less destructive of the lands to which they have access. They don’t slide their feet along as they walk and create ruts, as do beef cows, and are agile and lighter on the ground.
Nor do yaks follow the same traffic patterns as beef cows, which eat only good grass, allowing weeds to flourish; instead, yaks eat everything in the pasture that is not poisonous. Because they eat everything, they improve their pasture, and are more environmentally sustainable than beef cows.
Hasse says yak milk is wonderful, but the cows only produce two quarts a day – not enough to be commercially viable, but enough, perhaps, for a small family. Yak milk is 25 percent butterfat, compared with cow milk’s 4 percent butterfat. Yak meat fat is healthy, as well, Hasse says, because the yak is not grain-fed.
“Our beef cattle are grain fed, and grain feeding destroys the fat and meat quality of any animal,” he says. “A grass-fed animal will yield meat that has a much higher Omega 3 and CLA [Conjugated Linoleic Acids] content in the fat, and will diminish the bad fats, such as trans fats, that are in a lot of the grain fed meats.”
Del Yaks also sells yak hides, yak skulls and yak hair, wool and tails. All of these items are sold on his website and have a high demand. These days, Hasse cannot supply enough meat or yak products for the demand. “We need more people raising yaks,” he says. “Yak ranching is not a fad. This is a sustainable, economically viable animal and its environmentally perfect. The only negative is slow growth”
Hasse says the biggest challenge to someone wanting to raise livestock is time. It takes five to seven years to be able to go “straight yak,” as Hasse puts it. To someone wanting a quick turn around in the ranching business, this can be too long.
But, he says, “a retired person who owns 20 to 40 acres is the perfect person for yak ranching. Or a rancher that wants to transfer over from beef cattle that has money and doesn’t need the immediate return, but wants more money in the long run. You can literally double your profit once you’re established, on the same land, with yaks versus cattle.”
“We also sell a lot of yaks for pets,” he says. “They make great pets because of their intelligence and ability to become very docile if handled properly. They can become great pasture pets that will come to you for attention or treats and want to interact with you.”
That being said, Hasse believes strongly in yak meat and its nutritional. “We’ve been in the yak meat business for over 15 years. I’ve never been able to meet the demand,” Hasse says. Selling his yak meat to high-end restaurants in Denver, California and New York, he says, “Because of the lack of vaccinations and grain feed, we literally can produce the animal at 40 to 50 percent of the cost [of beef] and we get double to triple the meat price.”
If you’re interested in getting into the yak business, or in buying yak meat, Hasse says, “Come talk to me.” He can be reached at
[email protected] or 970/249-1734.