Wyo rancher concerned with grass-eating herd of yaks

Always-escaping yaks from Yak Daddy Ranch cause rancher angst.

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NEWSCOM/File
Yaks from the Yak Daddy Ranch are causing concern to at least one Wyoming rancher. The yaks eat valuable grass and could possibly mate with the rancher's cows, he says.

Cattle ranchers in the foothills of Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains are no longer yukking over a herd of yaks that keeps getting loose.

John and Laura DeMatteis of Buffalo, Wyo., raise the wooly, cattle-like animals on their 300-acre Yak Daddy Ranch.

They sell the animals, which are native to Asia, for their meat and wool. Problem is, the herd keeps wandering off — more than a dozen times in recent years.

Local cattle rancher Scott Rogers says the roaming yaks were funny at first. Now he says they eat his grass and he worries they could mate with his cows.

Local officials say they're pursuing an ordinance against "yaks at large."

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