From Deseret News archives:
Hyrum family adds pet yak to their farm
Which makes her give up? a yak.
A real, live yak, like the kind you read about traipsing through the mountains of Tibet, not chewing her cud on a treelined street in Hyrum.
Her name is Jasmine, if you'd like to be introduced.
"She has to have an interesting name she's an interesting animal," says Rochelle Pound as she scratches the yak's horned head.
There's the purple tongue, that's interesting.
The dark shaggy hair that will grow like a "skirt" around her legs. And that yak sound, just a low, soft grunt making Jasmine not too yakety at all.
A yak in the yard is a curiosity, to be sure, an animal that some are surprised to discover actually exists.
"Dr. Seuss talks about yaks, but you never think they're real," says Rochelle, who bottle-fed this bovine when she was just a baby.
Jasmine lives with the Wesley and Brenda Pound family and a menagerie of alpacas, goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, bees, cats and a dog named Toby. Skilled in the fiber arts, the Pounds raise many of the critters for their hair, fleece or fur, which can be spun into yarn.
"It comes loose with no effort," Wes says, demonstrating again, but, "It just tickles."
The Pounds moved back to their home state last year from Reno, Nev., settling in on this 1 1/2-acre spread next door to Brenda's mother.
They got Jasmine before the move from a yak breeder in Nevada, in exchange for bottle-feeding some of his baby yaks to help tame them.
Jasmine, who was about a week old and weighed around 40 pounds, started with three feedings a day from large calf bottles, filled with a powdered formula for baby yaks that mixes with water.
"You'd rub her underneath her chin and she'd start eating," remembers daughter Rochelle, 18, who now gets "kisses" on her pant leg from Jasmine's purple tongue.
At 1 year old, Jasmine stands about 3 feet tall at the shoulder and still has more growing to do. Over the next two years, she'll likely gain another 2 feet in height and weigh 900 to 1,000 pounds.
The full-grown yaks in Nevada were so big, Rochelle says, "I could put my whole fist in their nose."
Comments
- 'Faces of America' recommends LDS 3:48 p.m.
- Charges in '06 Taylorsville slaying 3:46 p.m.
- Blog: (Big) Easy Angle 3:45 p.m.
- Blog: (Big) Easy Angle 3:45 p.m.
- Chocolatiers find love and TV show 3:26 p.m.
- Layton home cleared of deadly gas 3:14 p.m.
- NH man who held hostages flees 2:58 p.m.
- Mom convicted in child's death 2:32 p.m.
- White House mocks Sarah Palin 2:21 p.m.
- Court halts rules on Edwards sex tape 2:11 p.m.
- Utah Jazz Ironmen
- High school players commit to BYU
- LDS veggie program helps Bolivians
- Lawmakers, educators debate plan
- Utahn's 'Caveman Diet' catching on
- MWC race shaping 'Survivor' style
- Kaman, not Boozer, on All-Star team
- SLC's City Creek moves ahead
- 2nd Layton girl hospitalized from gas
- Cougars hope for fast rebound
- UNLV bombs BYU into loss
185 - Lawmakers, educators debate plan
172 - Why do they hate us? Try asking
140 - Countering attacks on LDS scholarship
132 - Letters: Tea Party hypocrites
116 - Rally in opposition to benefit cuts
90 - Utah football alters schedule
80 - BYU's prime postseason position?
77 - Let's talk college hoops
76 - High school players commit to BYU
75
Interesting and entertaining observations of the Utah Legislature.
This is a 42-year old man who has not always had the easiest life. He is not...
Ha AMEN to this! Its about time! We have to many eductaors in the system who...
Speaking only for myself, there are plenty of e-tailers that provide the...
Good job, Gibbs. Palin's hypocrisy is stunning. I challenge her to look us...
Its a tragedy no matter how you look at it. My prayers go out to the family....
TO -- You are obviously a fascist | 1:27 p.m ["The Supreme Court won't...
In(Hebrews 9:26 JST)...the 'Meridian' of time. Hebrews 9:26 Greek NT)......
to: Lance ?? | 12:04 p.m. Feb. 9, 2010 LDS have a Stake in Mongolia,...
What's funny is that she has a couple bullet points listed that she wants to...
'The Whitehouse decides to mock Sarah Palin? This shows how low-class they...





You can be the first to comment on this story.