A few years ago when our family moved to the high plains of central Colorado, the specific climate prompt us to find the best suitable animal for our ranch. Yak became first in the list due to their abilities to survive this particular environment… and we also found that we are surrounded by yak ranches at where we live!
Like many first time yak owners, we searched internet trying to find useful information or tips on raising yaks but found that there were almost none at that time! This is one reason why we later setup our own YouTube channels and published various basics regarding yaks.
Also like many who learned about yaks from other cultures in various Asian countries, we dreamed about one day we can milk the yaks and comb their fiber for various exciting products as part of our ranching homestead. Even though the ranch we purchased our heifers from kept “reminding” us that these are wild yaks! We just had to learned it the hard way to realize that…
The real danger of this endeavor happened when our expensive yak bull calf, which probably has all the documented paperworks that can publish its own book, turns just over one-year old.
He began by challenging the wire fence to horn our sheep. Then he started staring at us and trying to tear the fence apart when we fed him treats. That’s when we met Leon Lux, our yak training mentor, introduced by one of our neighbors.
After a few time seeing the bull’s behaviors, Leon immediately determined that we can’t keep that bull and help us learn more about how to understand, interact, and most importantly, respect yaks.
“It takes specific kind of people to do it right,” he often told us. “.. and it will become one of the most rewarding experience in your life!”
And we agree.
Today, at The Dancing Yak Ranch we aim to build solid relationship foundation for us or the future owners of these remarkable animals—starts with specific set of training.
Yaks are not ordinary cattle. They are intelligent, independent, and highly aware of their surroundings. In their native high-altitude homes across the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau, people have long relied on them as multipurpose partners: animals that can be ridden, packed with loads, milked, and harvested for fiber and meat. We carry that same practical tradition forward, adapting it to the needs of a modern fiber farm.
Safety and Daily Handling
A well-trained yak is a safer animal to work with. When we need to move animals between pastures, load them for transport, or handle them during health checks, calm and responsive behavior matters. Training from a young age teaches our yaks to accept halters, lead quietly, stand for inspection—all without stress or resistance. This training is for us the owners too: how to properly calm the yak herd down, learn to see signs of uneasiness or anger of them, and know to properly move with them in the field. All of these takes time, for both the yaks and their owners.
So What Makes The Dancing Yak Ranch Different?
Each year we work with our yak training mentor, Leon Lux, to get close together with weaned yak calves from his ranch. Since our new yak bull becomes productive and start having calves of our own, we went one step further to work with the yak cows and begin training our calves BEFORE they even weaned on our ranch!
We socialize them with human touches as well as sorting them based on their interactions with us. To put it simply: We focus on encouraging good behaviors instead of disciplining them.
Respect for Intelligence
Yaks notice more than many people expect. They remember routines, recognize individuals, read your body languages, and respond to consistent, patient handling. The type of training we do honors that intelligence. Instead of forcing compliance, we work with their natural curiosity and problem-solving ability. The result is an animal that cooperates because it understands the pattern, not because it has been overwhelmed.
Note that a “friendly” yak does not automatically mean it won’t hurt you! Since a yak without proper training may decide to use “the yak way” to treat you as one of them—bumping horns as “high five,” or challenge you to determine the social orders among the herd… Our training (and the ongoing training of the new owners) disincentivizes those behaviors as they happens in order to, on the long run, make a yak realize that you’re a friend but “different” and thus treat you accordingly.
These approaches allow us to let the yak calves gain trusts to humans while keeping their natural characteristics so they become approachable but not losing their wildness.
Fiber Harvest and Care
Collecting yak fiber—especially the fine, cashmere-like undercoat—requires close contact. In general, any animals that trust their handlers stand more willingly for brushing, combing, or shearing. Using this activity as part of the training builds that trust. It also makes routine care easier: hoof trimming, vaccinations, and monitoring body condition all go more smoothly when a yak understands basic cues and remains steady under human hands.
Packing and Milking
The herders of Central Asia who still ride and pack yaks across mountain passes and collect cow’s milk every morning. Since Leon really dislikes the idea of doing anything with yaks in any chutes, we are (still) learning the more traditional way of milking and packing by working with our existing herd, or find right candidate to begin the training early. In this approach, halter train, as well as rear legs and udder desensitization are essential in order to successfully milk the yak cows. As the results, the new owners of these yak calves from us will get huge boost toward the goal of milking them or use them for packing.
Join Us and Explore The Wonderful Potentials of Yaks!
As we update our journey with yaks on our (and on Leon’s ranch), you are welcomed to participate by following us on various social media, or even better, get a few yaks from us to start your own journey with all the things we’ve already done on the calves when you get them! Don’t want to make same mistakes like we did? Get your yak starting herd from The Dancing Yak Ranch today and give you much easier start on your self-sufficient homestead journey!
Quote: “they become approachable but not losing their wildness.”
This is particularly important for us since we also use yaks as our main livestock guardians..
You can learn more about that here:
https://blog.thedancingyakranch.com/p/livestock-guardian-yaks-7d8