Author: Mary McCarty
Planning Unit: Menifee County CES
Major Program: Beef
Plan of Work: Supporting Local Agriculture
Outcome: Long-Term Outcome
The second yak conference was held on October 28, 2023, at Morehead State University. 48 tickets were claimed from the online registration site with 140 page views. Participants came from across the United States, and people traveled from Oregon, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, and Kentucky. The conference spanned 11 hours, providing information on general yak husbandry and updates from the Southern SARE-supported producer and on-farm research grant work. A post-program evaluation was provided, and 12 individuals completed the questionnaire. From the completed forms, 58% indicated they did not own yaks. These individuals were looking to buy yaks and wanted to learn more about them first. The greatest knowledge gained was from the STOCKET record app, which few had seen before, followed by the meat cutting demonstration and Match A Yak program. When asked about the usefulness of the information, 90% indicated the information was extremely useful. When asked why participants owned or were interested in owning yaks, fiber and meat production were the greatest reasons, followed by selling breeding animals and pleasure with pack animals being only indicated by two individuals. For those owning yaks, when asked what they intended to change after the conference, several indicated using the STOCKET app for record keeping, considering implementing artificial insemination, improving record keeping, improving fiber practices and marketing, using the Match A Yak program for mating decisions, develop a budget, improve forage program, and use the weigh tape to estimate body weights. Overall, the program succeeded in increasing the core knowledge for managing yaks.
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