Ryan’s Yak Farm

Today I'm talking with Cody at Ryan’s Yak Farm. You can also follow on Facebook.

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00:00
I'm listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Cody at Ryan's Yak Farm in New York. Good morning, Cody. How are you? Good morning. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Where in New York are you and how is the weather? Are you part of the heat bubble that's going on? We are definitely part of the heat bubble. We are in Oxford, New York.

00:29
upstate New York.

00:34
It's a hot,  hot, hot day, a hot week. Yeah. Yup. It sure is. um Upstate New York is all the way across New York.  what  are you, are you West or middle or East upstate?  I'm  going to say like East. Okay.  I'm not really good with demographics. So that's okay. Don't worry about it.

01:02
My parents live in Maine,  my husband and I have made the road trip from Minnesota to Maine a couple of times in 20 years we've been together.  And we always drive the Northern route in New York and then we drop down to get down to Albany.  And it is so beautiful. The grape arbors  and I don't even know what else.

01:32
all the rivers that go along the highway and oh my God, coming into Albany, you go basically  up a slight incline and then  you get to the top of that incline  and the whole valley drops out underneath you and all you can see is mountains and trees. So pretty, isn't it?  Oh my God. The first time I took my youngest, we took our youngest with us to visit my parents. We came up over that, that hill and the valley dropped out.

02:01
And he's looking from the back seat and I hear this big gasp  and he says, he says, mom, can I say a swear word? And I was like, yes. And he said,  holy shit, it's so beautiful.  How funny. And I'm crying. hadn't been home in years.  It is so pretty out here though. Yeah. And he was like, why are you crying? And I was like,  you know how you felt like you needed to say a big word you're not allowed to say? He says, yeah. And I said,

02:30
These are the big feelings that I feel like I'm not allowed to feel anymore. uh

02:38
Maine's so pretty too.  Oh, it is. It's beautiful.  Basically, basically we would hit Pennsylvania and I would be like, ah, I'm back in the land of trees.  Yes.  You know, cause I mean, Minnesota has trees, but it's very much Northern Minnesota that is like Maine. And so for me to feel like I'm quote unquote home  ish. Yeah. I have to drive like five hours to get far enough North to be like, Oh, pine trees, many, many pine trees again. So it's.

03:08
It's hard, but I also love Minnesota. I've been here for over 30 years. I always have to say that because when I first moved here, I moved here kicking and screaming. Oh, really?  Did not want to leave Maine. Yeah. And then after about 15, 20 years in Minnesota, I was like, you know, it really is nice here, too. I kind of love  it. so I always have to reiterate that I love where I live. I have had the chance twice to move back and I have chosen to not leave.  So I do love it here.

03:37
I love Minnesota. It is my second favorite home. So anyway, can you please tell me a little bit about what you do and a little bit about yourself? So I am a teacher during the day. I teach a barbering program at DCMO Boces. It's a career and technical school. It's not part of the cosmetology program. It's totally different.

04:06
the barber side of things. um I also  work at a barbershop  after I leave school. I go to the barbershop until like seven o'clock at night and then I'm finally able to come home for the farm.  And then I'm on weekends. My family does a lot during the week for the farm while I'm not here.  Weekends are my time to...

04:33
do everything I want to get done on the farm, spend time with the animals. I didn't grow up on a farm. I married into a farm, here 17 years. We've always had beef. This was my husband's dairy farm. Their family has owned this farm since 1906 and then my husband bought into it.

04:59
There was originally over 428 acres, but it got eventually sold off. And then my husband bought the farm.  So,  um,  I've got three children,  16 year old, 14 year old, and a 12 year old. And we live here on the farm and now,  now we're yak farmers.  I am so excited to find out about yaks, Cody. I haven't talked about  haven't.

05:27
talked to anyone about yaks yet in over two and a half years of doing this podcast. So,  they're so good. They're so awesome.  Yes. So tell me the different animals you have and then we'll narrow it down to my questions about yaks. What else do you have besides yaks?  I have  three baby Dalshi,  four goats. They're like mixed mixed goats. I've got a Gnubian and Oberhalsi and some Nigerian Dwarfs. um

05:58
I've got,  I think.

06:03
13 cooney cooney pegs.  Okay. I have a mule  and a horse um I Think that's it we did have these  but I lost the hive over the wintertime. So I didn't get bees this year. I was too late That happens. Mm-hmm It's it's a very rewarding job to keep bees, but oh definitely It's also heartbreaking when you lose a hive because it takes a lot to get that

06:33
Worked up. Yes,  and they're so expensive. Yeah, so to lose that My first year was that was that was rough, but I do plan on getting back into it. But good good I hope that you do because you already have this setup you might yes and the thing that's expensive about keeping bees is the beginning year as you discovered yes  Definitely getting all this stuff that you need is definitely expensive

07:01
Yeah, all the supplies. I it's going to sound terrible, but I'm going to say it anyway. If you are someone who is buying more than an acre of land to get into homesteading and you think you need to make a choice between bees and chickens, chickens are actually cheaper to get. Oh, 100%. Yes. But if you're obsessed with honeybees and you really want to do the work and you want to lay the money out so you can have go for it because it's just as rewarding.

07:30
It is and it's so delicious.  Oh my goodness.  Yeah. We, um, we have not been doing a lot of honey lately because honey is very expensive at the store or through someone who is raising bees. Right. miss it. I really miss honey. Oh, it is so good. I don't, I've never liked honey either. And then I got my own bees and started doing it and started like separating the honey from the honeycomb and all that. And

08:00
got on my fingers and then I tasted it. was like, holy moly, this is so good. It's so  different. m And we were getting our honey from Sam's Club. Okay. And we know someone who has bees and we haven't been up to see him in a couple of years. He has an apple orchard and of course has bees. Yep. And he sells his honey every fall and we haven't gotten honey from him in a couple of years. The difference between his honey and the

08:30
the real honey at Sam's Club, the difference in taste is, I would say, half again is good. His is half again is good. And we were lucky enough to get some of the honey he got one year from his bees. They had found a patch of wild mint. So the honey had a minty taste. It was fabulous. I bet it was. Oh, was so good.

08:58
I don't  think he's had that kind since. They haven't gone back to the mint patch. ah I love that though, the mint patch. Yeah, I teased him. said, you should charge double for this mint. Yeah. Like I can't do that. That's not, I can't do that just because we locked into mint. I said, of course you can. You're the one that sets your prices. He's like,  Mary, I'm not going to do that. I'm like, okay.

09:26
We're all going to benefit from your smart bees." And he was just laughing.  I said, if you can find, I don't know, a tree that makes a  strawberry flavor besides strawberries, strawberries that flavored honey would be really Oh, yeah. He said, you know that's not how it works, right? And I was like, yes, I know that's not how it works. Yes, I do. But it would be good. Yeah, strawberries, honey, that would be amazing.

09:55
Okay, so I didn't know that you had kept bees. I hope that you get back into it. Sounds like you really enjoyed it. So tell me about yaks. The thing in my head about yaks is that they are from Siberia or somewhere really cold and that the natives would milk them so that they had a source of milk. That's all I Yes, they did do that. They were from the Tibetan mountains, Himalayas.

10:25
They're just magnificent animals. They're big. I mean, they've got a lot of power on their backs, their necks. They use their horns over in the mountains to move rocks out of their way. But other than that, I'm still learning about yaks. This wasn't anything that we...

10:48
research before getting it just kind of fell in our lap and then  I'm still researching so I know how to

10:59
Keep everyone happy, everyone healthy. I'm still in that process of learning because we just got yaks last year.

11:08
Oh, so this is new.  Oh, this is so new.  very new. OK, then let me ask you some specific questions because it would probably be easier for you.  How many do you have? I have 12.  And have you had have you had any baby yaks?  Yes,  we  have had two yaks born on here at the farm. This year we lost one of the baby yaks. That was a really tough time.

11:37
We've tried  everything to help her and save her, but she had some kind of a rumen issue in her stomach and she just wasn't growing and it was awful. But  we have another little baby yak. Hopefully four more are born this year. ah So we have little Ivy. She's so sweet.

12:03
So yeah. So do  you have like more than one male Yak or do you have males? Nope, we have a couple of males. um We have Jack. So Jack is  who started all of this. um

12:20
Nothing.  I  didn't know anything about Yaks. Nothing. I didn't even know what a Yak was.  And my husband went over to his uncle's farm who was housing Jack.

12:36
He was housing him because there was a case going on, an animal abuse case. And Jack was one of those  animal victims that needed a spot to go. And my husband said, for the love of God, don't tell Cody that there's a yak that needs a home.  Don't say anything to her. And then my husband comes home and he walks through the door and he looks at me, he's like, you want a yak? And I'm like, what is a yak? I don't even know what a yak is.

13:04
And I'm Googling it and looking it up and I saw a picture of him and I smiled at my husband. I'm like, yeah, I want to yak. So that's how we got Jack is we adopted him through the SPCA. ASA SPCA. adopted him. And then when I was doing research, he was previously left with cows. So he's.

13:32
We had cows here, but we kept them separate. But doing some research,  they're herd animals. we got...

13:42
Um,  I gotta think how many more we got since Jack.

13:52
Nine. We bought more Yaks. So this all started in March of last year. So not, not long ago. no. All right. I pulled up, I typed in Yak in Google cause I wanted to see a picture of one. And what it's, and what I, what I saw in my head here is that it looks like a cross between a

14:21
beef cattle animal  and a buffalo. And it's funny because the taxonomy it says, it says belonging to the genus boss, BOS, yaks are related to cattle and bison.  Yes. Go fig. They're part of the bovine. Yep.  And the one they're showing is a dark  one with the horns that curl up and he has like a heart shaped white spot between the horns.

14:49
kind of like what Jack looks like. He's black  and has like a white patch and Ivy has the same markings as her dad.  Nice. Okay, so in looking at this picture, they have very long hair or are there short haired? So Jack is,  his upper body is short haired.

15:13
And then he's got a long skirt. The skirt and the Himalayas would protect the underneath during the super, super cold weather. I've got some woolies, so they're very  shaggy  and...

15:28
Alls I can think of is like a perm. You know, like my one bowl has a  very curly top on his head. But  they do come in a little bit of both. Okay. So does this, can the skirt hair be used for clothing? Like light sheep bowl is used for clothing?  I don't,  not a hundred percent sure, but I don't  think so  only because that's more of like a hair,  their fiber.

15:59
We get the Ariaks fiber from their top half, like underneath their regular hair. Like it's,  I don't know if I'm explaining that right, but it's so soft, so, so soft. I want to say it's probably just as soft, if not more than alpaca. So like an undercoat, like a dog? Okay. Yep.

16:23
And how is a yak's temperament? I mean, I'm assuming it depends on the animal. It depends on the owner, but... depends on the animal. general? I am currently yaks four, Cody zero. Oh, no. Yeah, it's not like they're trying to hurt me. I get in their space and they just move their head and I happen to be in that pathway. Jack is the sweetest yak that we got.

16:53
You could go in there, pet him, do whatever you want. He loves treats. em Some of them they want, they'll come up to you and take a treat, but they don't want to be pet.

17:04
Which is fine, but they're not aggressive animals by any means. Like I said, even though I'm four and zero, it's not out of aggressiveness that they're getting me. It's because I'm just being careless  in their area.  I'm too comfortable in their area, which I shouldn't be because  they are intact bulls. They are a huge animal. I should always have my guard up, but I'm like, oh, they're so sweet.  And I just love them. And I just want to be in there and pet them.

17:33
give them all the treats and there's times they don't want that. Please be careful, Cody. would like you to survive your love of Jack's. They are amazing. I do love them so much, especially Jack. He's  just to know what he's been through.  And I say this all the time on our page.  I don't think we rescued Jack. We might have helped him, but

18:03
in a way like he saved us, he rescued us. I didn't realize that we needed to have the farm open. um We're open to the public and I never thought I wanted people at my place.  I'm kind of private person, but now having Jack in our Yak page and open to the public, mean, everyone comes here and is able to brush  Jack.

18:32
See all the other animals that we have and I absolutely love I didn't know I needed that in my life Yeah, it's funny how animals come into your life and you just your heart just bursts open you had No clue that number one you needed them and number two that you would love them as much as you do. Yep Yeah, we have a dog like that and I'm not gonna spend 20 minutes on her. I swear to God

19:00
She's my favorite pet I've ever had. Her name is Maggie. She's an Australian Shepherd. She's going to be six, the first of August. And I have fallen so far over the love cliff with this dog. It's ridiculous. And I said to my husband the other day, I said, don't think I want another dog after Maggie is no longer with us. And he said, why? And I said, because I don't think I can do it again. I don't think I have.

19:27
the capacity to fall in love like that again and watch the animal live out of life and I'm still alive when it dies.  I can do it. Now that is one of definitely the hardest parts is losing a dog or anything, Cattle. mean, we lost Ivy or we lost Hazel and  I was  devastated. Yeah,  it's.

19:52
I keep saying that grief is not about regret about the death. It's about regret over the potential of the thing that died.  It  seems like you're grieving the life they lived, but you're actually grieving the life they didn't get to continue to live.  And I didn't realize that until a few years ago and my whole perspective shifted. And I was like,

20:23
Oh, duh. If I'm grieving the life that they didn't get to continue, maybe we make the life we're living better while we're here. Right. And that's probably what you think about the acts. probably have to make your life so much richer. Oh, definitely. I I love teaching to begin with. So when people come here and we can educate them with what knowledge that we do have and what we're still learning.

20:49
Just seeing people interact with the yaks or any of the animals we have here,  I just love it. I think it's amazing to see Craig go, my husband Craig go up in the pasture with the yaks with a bucket and just have them  all  follow him and then see people's expressions when you see these massive animals  either running behind him  or  walking behind him in a single line.

21:18
people's reactions is priceless.  love it. I think there's  so magnificent that people need to see them. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So how big do they get? I mean, how tall are they at the shoulder? Jack  is

21:42
How tall are you? I'm 5'4". So, I mean, Jack's head comes up to my head. Okay. So their shoulders probably about five  foot, maybe four foot 10. Maybe. Okay. So they're not super tall. No, not at all. Not super tall, just beefy um and powerful. Yeah. How much do they weigh, eh

22:13
Maybe 1200 to 1500 pounds. Yeah. So about the size of a cow. Yeah. Yep.

22:22
But short, but a short cow.  But shorter, their legs are shorter, they've got that skirt, they've got the massive horns. um

22:34
Yeah, mean, just the muscle mass that they have is crazy. The power that they used in the Himalayas to move things and tread through all that snow is  mind blowing. Yes, they're super amazingly strong and powerful animals. um I'm sure you don't want to eat your yaks, but I'm guessing that people eat yak meat like they eat beef. They do. They do.  So that's one of the things that

23:04
We do plan on doing with our, if we get too many bulls when we start calving, that's probably gonna be some of the pathway that we lead to is just ethical breeding, but making sure that we utilize all of our animal. My one bull that I have, he's about three years old and he's supposed to be processed.

23:29
but I can't find anybody in this area that will butcher a yak because of the horns.  Really? Yeah. They can't fit in the squeeze chute that they need, I guess, to be USDA. I can't. And I made sure that we bought some from the people that we got yaks from. They had some meat there and we bought some and it was delicious. It's so lean. It's so good for you. Yeah. Higher in the omega fats.

23:59
It's just,  it was amazing. You just gotta eat it a little bit.

24:04
Rare, not rare, but.

24:08
medium rare, just so it's still juicy. But um that was our plan, but we still have Danny  and he was originally our first yak to process and  I can't find anybody that doesn't want to cut the horns off first. And I'm not doing that. I'm not, that's not anything that I'm interested in is putting my animal through any kind of stress  before that because

24:37
I love them and I value them and I appreciate his time here and his purpose for us,  but I'm not putting my animal through any kind of stress like that. Yeah. And I'm assuming that New York has laws just like Minnesota has laws, just like every state has laws. Yep. That you can't dispatch him on your property and then take him to the budget. No, and not to do USDA so we could sell. Yeah.

25:06
So, no. Huh. Well, that's an interesting problem. And I've  called  everybody. And as soon as they're like, yack, nope.  Like, oh my goodness. I'm so confused because there's longhorn cat.  Yeah, I even called a longhorn butcher. And  I said, will you butcher a yak? He goes,  nope. I'm like,  why?  Just won't do it.  That is so weird.

25:35
guess it's meant to happen. know, Danny's meant to be here. So  sure. But do the female cats have horns too? Yep.  Well, the boys just have thicker. There's are a lot thicker, um longer. I think Danny's probably three and a half to four feet across with his horns. um The girls aren't as big, but they do have them.

26:06
The reason for not doing the females was to grow our herd. Oh, yes, of course. But I was just thinking that. definitely. For sure. We could. Yeah. As the females get older and aren't going to produce babies anymore. And it takes a long time to grow them too. Yeah. About three years to grow a yak to be from what we were told from the people that we got them from to be butcher size. OK.  Because they grow slower.

26:36
Yeah. And it takes about two years for a cow. So that doesn't surprise me that it takes a little bit longer for a They're mostly grass fed. just it's more lean, but we do do a little bit of grain. Yeah. And now it's off of pellets. I'm just astounded that they won't butcher. They won't dispatch and butcher a yak. Yeah, no. I can't find anybody.

27:03
I was willing to travel to PA. I was willing to travel wherever just so we could start our meat production here. That's what we got the cooney cooney pigs for is meat production and breeding.

27:18
They also take a really long time to grow. my first one goes on the 28th  of this month. I'm kind of  really sad.  They're so sweet. Yeah. Friends of ours got a couple of pigs a couple of,  two years ago, I think, and they butchered at least one of them last fall.

27:42
She was concerned that she would be really sad too and she hasn't said anything about being really sad about it. No. I think it went okay. I think this pig will do okay because I knew his purpose this whole time but the babies,  we just got seven more on Monday. And there's two that I have, one that looks like Chewbacca and just one that was a runt that we bought.  I don't think I could let those two go.

28:12
They're going to be friends for life. They're going to be friends forever. Yeah. Yeah. Because they're just so sweet. Um, well, I'm still puzzling over the whole not butchering yaks. So if anybody is listening and knows anyone who does butcher yaks, please let me know or let Cody know. can email me and you can, assume I'll, I can, I'll put your Facebook page link. Yeah.

28:41
in the show notes when this comes out so people can get a hold of you. Definitely let me know, especially if you're in upstate New York. Yeah, or I'm trying to think. I don't know if I don't know how this works. What happens if somebody in Canada will do it and you drive your yak to Canada to be butchered and then it comes back? I have no idea. I don't know. Do I have to cross customs?

29:08
I don't know. think so. I wonder if that's a thing probably. I bet it would cost a ton of money. So maybe that's not even possible. But I'm trying to think of what's before New York because I'm looking at the map in my head and it's a little hazy. What is the state west of New York? Ohio? Yeah, it's down a little bit. But yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe Ohio.

29:33
Maybe Illinois, maybe freaking Kentucky. I don't know. even reached out to the, um, we follow this group on Facebook, um,  the bearded butchers. They're in Ohio. I absolutely love them. And then I even reached out to them, but I didn't hear anything back. That would have been amazing. This is craziness. Yeah. I'm so sorry that you're having such a hard time with them. Oh, that's okay. I mean, just.

30:01
longer that we get to have Danny here and people get to see how amazing he is and how beautiful he is.  Well, I love that you guys are doing this because yaks and reindeer  are two of the animals that most people don't think of when they think of people who have farms or homesteads and ranches. And my other podcast, Grit and Grace in the Heartland with my co-host Leah,  she's a cattle rancher.

30:29
And I interviewed a lady who raises reindeer with her dad. And Leah had her cattleman husband listen to that episode. And her cattleman husband said, $20,000 for a reindeer? One? That was what stuck out to him from the interview. That's too funny. Yeah. So how much does a yak usually cost, It depends on their temperament.

30:57
The place that we went to, there was a couple, but I think they did this price, there was $18,000. And I think they set it that high because they don't want to get rid of it. But I would say typically between three to $5,000 is normal. Especially with temperament, if they're super sweet, you can get more money because instead of like a wild one.

31:27
um We just got some, just got two new Yaks, Aspen and Ridge on Saturday.

31:39
They're the sweetest things. So sweet. So we have the vet coming out today to do a health check on them and then the babies to get them ready because we got invited to go to the Schenango County Fair this year. Oh, fun. Yeah. Not to be in with the dairy, the bee for anything. Like we won't be in their exhibits, but we'll have our own little tent and set up for our yaks. I think I'm going to bring three or four of them.

32:09
So the vet comes up today and we do checks and.

32:15
Get everyone all ready for the fair in August and it should be a good time. That's exciting. And the fact that they're not putting them with the other cloven-hoved animals leads me to think that they think that they are,  there's a word and I had it before I started talking about it,  exotic. Yes. Oh, for sure. For sure. Your special, Koda, you have exotic animals. Yes.

32:44
So exotic that insurance. Let me tell you, it was rough getting insurance because of the exotic animals. Yeah. So do you have to have like a special permit to own them? No.  No permit. Okay. Cool. Which is weird. That's good though, because permitting can be really expensive too. Yep. No permits.  Just have them here.

33:13
And I know this is new for you, but are there a lot of people in the United States that have yaks or is it a very unusual animal? There's  a few in New York that I know of that I've gotten mine from. um I probably can think of four  yaks.

33:38
Yak Farms. In New York alone. In New York. Yep.  And people have been reaching out about buying some and I just, I don't have.

33:51
the amount yet to be able to grow our herd and we'll see with how many babies we have. Yeah. So. Oh, that's another question. With cows, if they have twins and they're male, female twins, the female typically isn't capable of reproducing. Right. She's called a free Martin. Do yaks have the same issue? That I'm not sure. You might want to check into it.

34:18
I do think that having twins is very rare for them, but they do have them.  that part I don't know yet.  Well, I'm glad I had the chance to talk to you so I could bring it up because now that we're Leah goes through that sometimes. Does she? They don't know whether the female is going to be able to have babies or not in that situation. And so she usually goes to auction and becomes hamburger or whatever because they can't

34:47
keep an animal that isn't earning its keep. Right, exactly. Yeah. So put it on the list, ma'am, to check and see about the free Martin situation with the eggs. Definitely. Try to help every chance I can, because I know just enough to be dangerous. And when I actually think that might be important, I'm like, hey, have you thought about this yet? No, that's good to think about. I try to keep these to half an hour. We're at 35 minutes, Cody.

35:14
Thank you so much for having me. Where can people find you? At Ryan's Yak Farm on Facebook.  And if you go to the website, it's Ryan's Yak Farms with an S at the end of farms.com. Awesome. Thank you so much. No, thank you. I really appreciate it.  As always, people can find me at Atty. Homestead podcast.com.  Cody, thank you again. Love you. Thank you.

35:42
And I learned so many cool things today about an animal that I knew like two things about. So it was awesome.  Have a great day. Thank you. You too.