Yak Farming For Commercial Purposes

Yaks are part of the bovine classification of species and domesticated yaks are considered to be ideal for commercialisation.

They originate from China and with the plateaus, they habit well there as they are considered to be an outstanding achievement of the Qiang Culture was the taming of wild beasts for domestic purposes.

The migration went through passes in the Himalayas to the mountainous grasslands of the southern slopes of the range.

Domestication of yak in particular led to progress, prosperity and economic advancement for the people because of the value of the yak as a beast of burden and its products of milk, hair, hides and meat – and the availability of its dung as a fuel in the areas above the tree line.

Yak Products And Their Use

Yaks have about 10 products to utilize which can be an income generation for families and herdsmen. These products are;
PRODUCT END PRODUCT
Milk – Milk for tea

Butter

Cottage cheese

Swiss type cheese
Meat – Fresh meat

Frozen meat

Dried meat (biltong)

Sausages and casings from viscera

Meal protein for animals
Bone – Made into handicraft

Bone meal

Glue
Hides and pelts of calves – Leather production

Coats
Coarse hair and fine down – Ropes

Garments

Tents
Tail hair – Fly whisk

Used ceremonially

Ornaments
Head – Ornaments
Yak faeces – Used as fuel after drying

Building walls

Yaks can be sold for breeding purposes, creating new strains and for their organs also.

LIFESPAN OF A YAK

Maximum life span of the yak in captivity is generally about 20 years (Wiener et al. 2003).

One wild yak lived 22 years and 9 months in the Beijing Zoo, China. Longevity probably is comparable in the wild found that the oldest of 6 reliably aged wild yaks died at 16 years.

Diet

The yak is an herbivorous ruminant that has foraging preferences of the wild yak understood mainly from limited micro histological analyses of faeces.

Yaks are grazers that seasonally eat grasses, sedges, and forbs which are noted that wild yaks find nourishment in the mosses and lichens on mountain slopes and among old and new moraines.

Herders drive domestic yaks to water sources as often as twice a day, particularly under twice-a-day milking regimes.

Mode Of Transportation

For centuries to the present day, nomadic pastoralists have depended on domestic yaks for transportation and sustenance consuming milk, butter, and meat, and using by-products of culling for clothing, tents, leather goods, and medicinal (5 blood) purposes. Nomadic pastoralists were dependent on domestic yaks to move supplies throughout the Tibetan Plateau; trucks now deliver most supplies.

Types Of Breeds

Feral yak – were discovered in the Helan mountains of Inner Mongolia at an elevation of 2 500 – 3 000 m. These animals are thought to be the offspring of yak that lived about 200 years ago that were used at that time by lamas to transport Tibetan religious books from Qinghai to Gansu. The herd contains a high proportion of white animals, which suggests they may be related to Tianzhu White yak.

There are 12 officially recognized breeds of domestic yak from different parts in China:

• The Jiulong yak (Sichuan)
• Maiwa yak (Sichuan)
• Tianzhu White yak (Gansu)
• Gannan yak (Gansu)
• Pali yak (Tibet)
• Jiali (“Alpine”) yak (Tibet)
• Sibu yak (Tibet)
• Huanhu yak (Qinghai)
• Plateau yak (Qinghai)
• Bazhou yak (Xinjiang)
• Zhongdian yak (Yunnan)
• The Plateau yak
• Jiulong yak

A new strain of Datong yak in Qinghai which is the only improved yak population developed deliberately by crossing wild yak bulls with domestic yak females with the intention of creating a new breed of yak.

There are breeds in other countries and some of them are;

Birthing Procedure For Yaks

Birth is often from a standing position although the female may spend considerable time lying on her side. Females may be very aggressive during parturition.

Parturition of the domestic yak occurs during the day, rarely at night, in a sheltered location away from the herd.

Offspring are precocial and attempt to stand within about 10 min postpartum; 1st nursing occurs 11–30 min postpartum and may last 3–5 min and the females and their offspring rejoin the herd shortly thereafter.

Groups are formed by wild yaks to protect their offspring from threats forming a phalanx by placing the calves at the centre of some fully grown yaks.

Animal Health

Many of the serious disease and mortality causing pathogens of domestic cattle can be transmitted to yaks, and many of them have been found in, domestic yaks, including bacterial and infectious bovine diseases. Although impractical for wild yaks, domestic yaks can be effectively vaccinated against many of these among others infecting domestic yaks and probably wild yaks.

Predators

Predator–prey dynamics on the Tibetan Plateau and current dynamics are a product of greatly reduced populations of both due to various human activities. How To Raise Yaks The degree to which ungulates are preyed on or scavenged is largely unknown, and separating wild and domestic yaks in predators’ faeces, for example, is difficult in places where they both occur. Yaks are scavenged by snow leopard, wild bears and even humans who will kill them for their produce.

Target Market

In cold weathers we rely on coats and leather clothes to keep us warm, hence the yak hide, pelts of calves, coarse hair and fine down are usually processed in factories that have the ability to produce good quality products.

The meat and milk are considered to be on demand too since there’s quite a number of products that come from them and are used daily. For some families and herdsmen, they have taught themselves on production methods which will lessen their expenses as the business can be maintained at family. All that is needed is ensuring the availability of the right production equipment.