Hyrum family adds pet yak to their farm

Jasmine is inquisitive and loves attention, Wes says. When folks pet her, she's likely to lean right against them.

"If you scratch her in just the right spot, she'll lay down for you," Rochelle adds. But the yak also has her frisky side.

She dumps her water bucket over, Wes says, and "she loves to prance and dance around."

Jasmine has hoofed it around Cache Valley a bit, visiting 8-year-old son Mitchell's school — where she took an unexpected romp out of her trailer — and attending Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center in Wellsville.

"Everyone loved her," Wes says, even if they weren't sure what she was.

"Look at the baby buffalo," folks would say, not even noticing a sign on Jasmine's stall clearly stating, "I am a yak."

The Pounds volunteer at the heritage center, demonstrating spinning, felting and other old-time fiber arts. Their skills are a great addition to the center's offerings, says program coordinator Lorraine Bowen.

"You don't see a lot of that going on anymore. ... They're beginning to be a dying art," Bowen says.

And although spinning wool is fairly common, she says, working with yak down is not.

So far, Brenda says the only thing she's done with Jasmine's hair is spin a little yarn. Yak fiber is difficult to clean because it's full of long guard hairs that must be removed.

It's a task Brenda's has done by hand — "I've got to figure out a different way that's faster."

Until then, no yak afghans.

Yak fiber is warm, warmer than wool, Brenda says. Yet because it's so fine, it's not typically used by itself.

"Most people just want a little tiny bit of it and add it to something else; they just want the softness," she says.

Jasmine's "skirt" of hair will grow longer as she grows older, Wes says. The guard hairs, too, can be put to use; Brenda says the fancy headdresses in the musical "Cats" were made of yak guard hair.

The Pounds also raise angora rabbits and Shetland sheep. They are experimenting with two alpacas, Toblerone and Charcoal, and also have an angora goat, which produces mohair.

There's a satisfaction in creating things from fiber from your own animals, says Wes, an electrical engineer who enjoys weaving place mats and suspenders.

It's just the idea, he says, that: "You start from nothing and end up with something."

In some countries, owning a yak is a status symbol, Wes says, a "measure of wealth."

Some use yaks as pack animals; their split hooves are less damaging on trails than horses' hooves, Wes says.

He'd like to start teaching Jasmine to carry a yoke and then maybe pull a cart. But since the family didn't start getting the yak used to being led last year, when she was younger, "We may or may not be able to do this."

Still, the brown-eyed Jasmine does help out around the house, regularly "mowing" the lawn. She eats mostly grass and alfalfa but also gets an occasional snack.

"She loves apples," Wes says, and animal crackers, too — plain, with no frosting.