BrownSheep- It's been a while

[Bridgemoof]

That's cool you are getting another Yak, Brownsheep. What does one do with a yak? Do you eat their meat? Are they milkers? What is their wool like, is it spinnable? Just curious because I never encountered someone with a yak before and don't know a thing about them.

Good luck on your math test retake!

 

[BrownSheep]

That's cool you are getting another Yak, Brownsheep. What does one do with a yak? Do you eat their meat? Are they milkers? What is their wool like, is it spinnable? Just curious because I never encountered someone with a yak before and don't know a thing about them.

Good luck on your math test retake!

In our situation we will use any bull calves for meat. Yaks have much leaner meat than beef and require about 1/3 as much feed as beef cows. They do have super soft under coats that people spin. That coat usually has to be collected by hand. In the Himilayas the yaks are milked. I think there are a few places in the country that milk theirs. Yak milk is higher in butterfat than cow milk. I would love to give it a try but value my life so I don't think I ever will.

Because yaks are a different species than cow when you cross them you get sterile male offspring and fertile females. Right now we have one female cross called Ruby. Interestingly enough she inherited the super soft coat but looked like a hereford in most aspects. Now she has a SUPER slick coat and is brindled colored. Im hoping she get her fuffly coat back.

For most people who raise them around here they are a hobby. They are mainly just pasture ornaments that produce some yummy steak every once and awhile.

 

[BrownSheep]

It was nice to go home. Were at a stand still on the yak front. They want 1200 for him which isn't all that ba but .... It's money...and with all the trouble we've had keeping our two in the pasture we may be selling them anyway. My turkeys are all alive and well.

Like most rural people in my area we have a cat problem. We get all the ones we can tame or catch fixed, but the feral ones are causing an issue. We probably had closeto thirty kittens born this spring that I know about. Through one thing or another the original group of thirty is Dow to about ten. Three weeks ago another litter of younger babies showed up. Theres 5 of them. And yesterday I found a litter of at least three with their eyes barely open....that's 18 for those of you keeping count. Ten are tame enough to fix or give away. The middle 5 are WILD...wich my sister will hopefully remedy. The youngest ones will be easy to tame if the mom doesn't move them.

Right now we also have either A) a mutation or b) a new bloodline that is causing the cats not to have tail, not even a stub. My dad has seen a stub tailed Tom someone dropped off running around so who knows....anyone want a cat.

.....Did I mention we feed ALL of them. Babies and adults

 

[SheepGirl]

I hear ya on the cats! We neutered all of ours last summer...we missed one (it was too young to get fixed and we thought it was a boy, so it didn't really matter) and she had kittens this year. Well I caught her on a Sunday and she had 5 kittens on Thursday...one died and then I stole two kittens from the barn (In my defense, the fluffy kitty was the only surviving one...her three siblings were skin and bones and were dead (one was close to death when I found them)...and the kitten we kept, Claire, welll...my mom wanted her and it was okay with my neighbor.) But as of now, there are 12-15 adult cats that we feed on a regular basis and there's another 5-10 down at the neighbor's barn that are fed there. All of 'ours' are friendly but the ones at the barn are wild.

One thing I'm happy about is that 1/3 to 1/2 (if that) of the kittens born & raised outside survive to weaning. Makes it a lot less mouths to feed!

I hope you're having fun at college!

 

[BarredRockMomma]

It is so nice to know that I am not the only one dealing with kittens. The good news is that I only have one left to fix and then she is moving next door. After that all the kittes have homes that are not mine. The only two that get to stay have no tails, I kida like that look. I will post pictures at some point.

 

[jodief100]

I trapped, spayed and neuter all the cats here. The local spay and nueter clinic lets me bring them in still in the trap with notice the night before. So we haven't had kittens for awhile. Every once in awhile a new one shows up and I get the traps out again. The coyotes are so thick around here I think most of the cats go to them. Better than my baby goats.

 

[BrownSheep]

Today, I'll be going to lecture being given by Sharon Matola. If you've read Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw you'll know who Im talking about. If not google her she's pretty interesting.

 

[BrownSheep]

I read that approximately 20% of all births in sheep are triplets in the UK. Last year we had 10 ewes lamb. 4 of them had triplets ( 40%) one set lost one as a still born, One lost one to mother inexprience, and one was lost to unknown causes at 8 weeks, the 4th raised all three. The other ewes produced, two sets of twins and 5 singles. Out of those we lost one of the twins to ( most likely the birth being unassisted). And one single to unknown causes right after birth.

That gives us a rather pathetic loss of (23%). When I consider that out of all of that only one loss ( the stillborn) came from a seasoned ewe. The rest were yearlings. This year I expect they will do much better. .This year we will lamb out 15 ewes with the main bunch and a possible 7 in the late spring /summer.

Can you tell I'm bored/ avoiding homework?

 

[BrownSheep]

By popular demand the yaks!

Harry at almost 2 years back in December. We sold him back in August to a classmate of my sister's. He was probably 4 inches taller when we sold him

Ruby the fake yak. She's a dzo or yow as my dad likes to call her. She's 1/2 Hereford 1/2 yak. When yaks and cattle are crossed you get fertile females and sterile males .In this picture she's 2 months old she's now a year old. She has the yak shoulder hump and is slick haired. Not fluffy like above except for the end of her tail.She has a broom of a tail. She's also brindled red. Yaks are called grunting oxen because they don't moo but grunt. Ruby does something In between. You can definitely tell its not a normal moo.

I also have Harry and Ruby's mom Betty but don't have any photos uploaded of her.

ETA Betty in the middle of harry( whose scratching his shoulder) and Ruby at 5 months

 

[BrownSheep]

Not the greatest just a test photo.
You're in trouble now I've figured out how to use photobucket!