A SPECIAL PRODUCERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ® CALIFORNIA Dairy & Livestock
‘Shaggy mountain cows’ prized for meat, other uses
By Linda DuBois Diners at Sunnyside Restaurant & Lodge in Tahoe City who sample the popular bolognaise on the winter-season menu may be getting their very first taste of its main ingredient. When Executive Chef Christian Novak and his team make this dish, instead of using traditional ground beef or pork, they use meat from domesticated yaks descended from shaggy bovines native to the Himalayan mountains. While foreign to many of Sunnyside’s diners, this dark- red lean meat is approachable, often compared to grass- fed beef or bison. Novak said he enjoys sharing the story of the nearby ranch that raises the yaks, noting the dish is listed on the menu as “Sierra Valley Yaks Bolognaise,” piquing people’s interest. “Not everyone knows what a yak is,” he said. Sierra Valley Yaks owners Greg and Jenna Gatto also knew very little about the animals before they started rais- ing them. Greg Gatto had owned a small herd of beef cattle for about 20 years. After moving to the Sierra Valley, where he met Jenna, he would keep the herd in the mountains during the summer but move them to the valley for winter. “I thought it would be really nice to have something here year-round,” Greg Gatto said. He started thinking about animals that would do well in a high elevation and said he “threw the idea of yaks out there to Jenna.” That was about nine years ago. The couple started with 11 from Idaho and later added another 11 from Montana and built their herd of 165 from those. Now, they’re rotat- ing four bulls that breed with about 70 cows. Besides meat, yaks also produce good milk, high in fat and protein, which the Gattos regularly consume at home. They said they hope to eventually break into the dairy business, but because they both have full-time jobs out- side the ranch, they haven’t found time to work through the red tape required to get that started. Descended from the larger wild yak, or Bos mutus, the domestic yak is named Bos grunniens, which means “grunting ox.” “Yaks grunt rather than moo,” Greg Gatto said. “They sound almost like pigs.” Domestic yaks are similar to cattle, with a few distinc- tions. The females, especially, are much smaller than typ- ical cows. “They look a lot like Highland cattle. We call them shag- gy mountain cows,” Greg Gatto said. The horned animals have a long coat with outer pro- tective hair and a thick undercoat that grows during the winter. Then they naturally shed during warm months. Mostly docile and friendly, the Gattos’ yaks often will approach the couple and eat treats out of their hands. However, if something spooks them, they can stam- pede or jump fences. They don’t respond to trained herd- ing dogs, so the Gattos lure them with treats. They’ll also See YAKS, Page 11
Domesticated yaks, descended from bovines native to the Himalayas, are sold for their meat, milk and fiber.
10 Ag Alert May 21, 2025
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