Our Ranch
We believe that Hay Springs Yaks has North America’s second largest herd of registered yaks and is North America’s largest producer of raw yak fiber. We breed outstanding bulls and heifers as seed stock for other ranchers.
The Yaks
Our yaks are naturally grass fed. We use no steroids and no growth hormones. We absolutely do not supplement diet with antibiotics. When our animals need hay, we feed certified organic hay. We pride ourselves in raising healthy and contented yaks.
The Location
In the northwestern corner of Nebraska, where the state of Nebraska fades into South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana, lies a rugged ribbon of land 100 miles long averaging 10 miles wide called the Pine Ridge. This little known escarpment between Nebraska’s White and Niobrara rivers is east of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains and just 50 miles south of South Dakota’s Black Hills, its two larger and better known cousins. Our Hay Springs Yaks ranch stretches more than a mile from the banks of Little Bordeaux Creek up into some of the wildest parts of the ridge.
Here the flora and fauna are very similar to the Black Hills and the Bighorns. The higher elevations are almost exclusively home to Ponderosa Pine. In the riparion zones one finds Cottonwoods, Box Elder, Ash, and Willow.
Regular welcome visitors include elk, pronghorn, mule and whitetail deer. Turkeys are abundant. We get our share of less welcome visitors too: racoons, skunks, rattlesnakes. Predators include bobcats, mountain lions, coyotes, golden and bald eagles.
Too rugged for planting, the Pine Ridge is used primarily for grazing and recreation.
