Raising Yaks In Colorado

Raising Yaks In Colorado

I'm in the middle of raising yaks in Colorado.

I have a few thousand acres of high meadow, about 10,000 ft above sea level, that was once part of a large sheep ranch. It's an hour by dirt road from the nearest town. I'm growing hay there as feed for my herd of yaks.

Yak meat is interesting and delicious: darker than beef, sweeter, richer in flavor and with just a hint of wildness. It's lower in fat, calories, cholesterol and sodium than either beef or chicken; higher in protein, iron and vitamin B-12 than either. It has a fine texture and cooks faster than beef because it doesn't have marbling. And yet it tastes like beef.

It has been eaten for 4,000 years by the people who live on the Tibetan plateau; now it is being introduced to America - first for its hair (soft and warm) and leather (stronger than cowhide), then for its milk (more butterfat than cow milk) and meat.

A group of us were having a bonfire up on the mountain recently. It was a crisp fall evening and we sat around the fire sipping bourbon while our kids played on a huge boulder nearby. As it got dark, those of us who lived here shared stories about living in Colorado, and those who did not listened raptly, as if we were talking about some exotic foreign country.

"So how do you make a living?" someone asked me. "If you're not growing pot, that is."

I told them I had a business that raised yaks and sold yak meat. This produced the expected reaction - surprise and mild amusement. "Yak meat? Please tell me you're kidding."