Southern Oregon yak rancher expands her business with the help of a USDA grant

Sophia Weiss is the owner of Firebird Farms, a working ranch nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains outside of Ashland. But you won’t find any Angus beef cattle roaming and grazing on the rolling hills of her 200-acre property. Instead, you’ll find a herd of about 80 Tibetan yaks which Weiss has carefully bred and built up from a pair she acquired nearly a decade ago off a Craigslist ad. 

In October, the USDA Rural Development office awarded Weiss nearly $235,000 to market and develop a range of new products made from her yaks. The federal agency awarded similar grants to 10 other small Oregon farms which it announced last month, in honor of “National Ag Day 2023”. Weiss is now using the grant dollars to work with mills in the Pacific Northwest to process the yak wool she harvests by hand to make into yarn and other textile goods in the coming months. Sophia Weiss joins us to talk about her farm and why she’s bullish about the future of yak ranching in Oregon and the nation.