SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Northern Farm Training Institute (NFTI) is always looking for animals, crops or cultivation methods that would fit into the climate of the North.

Sheldon Firth, the holistic management supervisor with the Northern Farm Training Institute, had the idea to bring a yak to the organization's farm campus in Hay River. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

And it says it has found an animal that will fits like a glove.

That is a yak, an animal from the Himalaya Mountains area of Asia related to oxen, bison and cattle.

However, NFTI's yak - named Zak the Yak - did not come from the Himalayas, but from a farm in Alberta.

The idea to bring a yak to Hay River originated with Sheldon Firth, NFTI's holistic management supervisor.

"I was doing research on different animals and discovered that the yaks can eat all this vegetation that we have here much better than cattle or other animals, and they produce excellent quality milk, much more nutritious than cow's milk," he said. "Of course, they're very cold hearty. They have lots of like really thick fur. There are lots of benefits."

Firth is not sure if Zak the Yak is the first of his species in the NWT.

"I haven't read of any others," he said. "It probably is."

The plan is to crossbreed the yak with cows at NFTI.

"That way the cows grow much faster and produce more milk," Firth explained. "So we get the benefits of both species. They'll be hardy, well suited for the North, but more productive."

Yak milk also has more protein and vitamins than cow's milk.

Yak meat is also said to be very good.

"It's delicious," said Firth. "It's definitely more like bison meat."

Crossbreeding of yaks and cows has happening in Tibet for thousands of years, and is also now happening on ranches in Alberta.

In Tibet, yaks - which are slightly smaller than cows when full grown at about three or four years - are used for milk and meat, as draft animals, and people even ride them like horses.

Zak the Yak was born in mid-March and NFTI got it later that month.

"So we got it when it was two weeks old," said Firth, noting it was born into a yak herd near Red Deer, Alta., probably the largest such herd in Canada.

When Zak the Yak first arrived at NFTI he was about as large as a medium-sized dog, but is now bigger than a sheep.

"He's grown a lot," said Firth.

It will probably be two years until the yak can mate with NFTI's cattle, and another year before they will have offspring.

"It's a multiyear project," said Firth.

NFTI's holistic management supervisor said the organization would like to bring in more yaks.

"But they're expensive. That's the only problem," he said. "But if we have the funding, we will bring in more yaks because we really like him. He has such a nice temperament, very friendly and very hardy. He's been very healthy. And a lot of young cows when they're fed the same thing he is get sick. But he hasn't gotten sick. He's a very hardy animal."

Jackie Milne, the president of NFTI, said the challenge for the organization is to find animals that are going to thrive on the North's natural vegetation.

"So instead of trying to fit an animal in that's not well-suited, let's find animals that are," she said. "So cows, for instance, they can live here, but they need more grass and they need at a minimum to survive three per cent of their body weight to stay alive per day."

However, a yak is better suited to the region because it only needs to eat one per cent of it bodyweight per day.

"They're more like a deer in that they will browse and they will eat foliage from trees and they will eat other vegetation," she said. "They'll even eat moss because they have a little more wild genetics in them. So they are ideally suited for this area."

Zak the Yak has become a centre of attraction since arriving at NFTI.

"Definitely, everyone who comes here wants to see him," said Firth. "I don't think many people have seen a yak. This was the first one I've seen, actually."

And Zak the Yak, as the only member of his species at NFTI, has been going through an identity crisis.

"It's getting better," said Firth. "Now it thinks it's a cow mostly. But before it was acting like a dog. It was very friendly towards our dogs and it was friendly towards all the people, and it was chasing the sheep around. It didn't know that it was a cow yet. It's not a cow, but we're tricking it into thinking it's a cow."

A cow has even adopted the yak and provides milk to it.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.