# Backyard Herding in Mongolia



## Roving Jacobs (Sep 4, 2018)

I mentioned this in another thread but decided it deserved its own post. Hopefully you all find this interesting!

In addition to running my sheep farm I'm getting a masters in biology. The program I'm in has optional summer trips that take the place of classes and after a lot of dreaming and talking with my family and scraping together the money I got to spend two weeks in Mongolia this June!





We spent time looking for endangered pallas cats, visiting nomadic herders, teaching kids, and seeing where the last truly wild horse species had been returned to the country after facing extinction.





I've never felt so at home in a country so far away. Turns out farmers are the same kind, generous people all around the world.




Let me know if you have any specific questions but otherwise I'll share some basics about my trip and Mongolia in general, as well as some of the (many) pictures I took!


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## Roving Jacobs (Sep 4, 2018)

Mongolians eat a lot of meat. So much meat! There really isn't arable land because it's so dry and windy and cold so they live off of their livestock who can graze on what little vegetation there is on the steppe.




We were there at the end of dry season so it was just about as dry as it gets there and it felt like being sand blasted any time we were hiking or working outdoors.




Mongolians in the region we stayed raise sheep, goats, cows, and horses. Further North they also raise yak and reindeer. Some also keep eagles for hunting but release them back into the wild after a year or so to breed and keep the wild population healthy.




The sheep are fat tailed, carpet wool types similar to karakuls. The fatty tail is a delicacy that is said to promote healing and good health. The goats are all cashmere. Every livestock species they raise is used for meat, milk, and hair/fiber/pelts. They tend to eat different meats each season. Sheep in the spring, goats in the summer, beef and horse in the fall and winter. I was there in goat season and ate so much goat.




Closer to water sources herders had huge herds of horses and cattle. Men and boys follow the herds all day, women and girls stay at the gers (yurts) to milk the lactating animals, process the milk products and meat, and mind the baby animals.  












The sheep and goats got moved from well to well where the herder would draw up buckets for hours until every animal got water. A lot of wells are in disrepair so they are having to travel further and further to reach enough water to support their herds.


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## RollingAcres (Sep 4, 2018)

Wow! Such a great experience!!!


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## Latestarter (Sep 4, 2018)

What a fantastic adventure you got to enjoy! Congrats and best wishes on getting your Masters. Looking forward to your future posts.


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## Roving Jacobs (Sep 4, 2018)

Oh! I forgot that some people raise camels too. It's hard to see but I swear there are camels here. This is more common in the South near the Gobi Desert.




The main predator herders have to deal with is wolves. It was really shocking to me to see wolf pelts for sale everywhere. Even the main department store had a whole section of pelts and furs. This is from a huge outdoor market where they also had eagle, vulture, and owl parts for sale. No way any of that was getting through customs!








There's been a push to reintroduce the traditional lgd landrace, called bankhar dogs, to reduce the need to shoot wolves and protect livestock. We were warned never to get to close to the dogs but they were happy to ignore us when we visited the homes of nomadic families. They prefer black and tan bankhars so that's all I saw but they also come in red and brown.




This one didn't even get up from his nap when we arrived to this ger. He must have been hard at work all night. He found the one spot of shade in the area and wasn't going to budge from it.


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## promiseacres (Sep 4, 2018)

Awesome! thanks for sharing!


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## Hens and Roos (Sep 4, 2018)

very interesting! Thanks for sharing the pictures.


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## Baymule (Sep 4, 2018)

Wow! Trip of a lifetime! Thanks for taking so many pictures!


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## Roving Jacobs (Sep 4, 2018)

One of the coolest things I saw in Mongolia were the wild horses. Przewalski horses, or takhi as the Mongolians call them, are a separate species from domestic horses. They were extensively hunted and captured for zoos and circuses and by the 1950s there were only 12, all in captivity. At that point zoos realized they needed to save them and started a breeding program. By the 90s there were over 1500 in captivity and countries started to release them back into the wild.





For a week my group stayed in Hustai National Park and got to see the takhi almost every day. Overall I saw about 40 different horses, which is a huge number considering there are only about 500 in the park. They live in small bands with a stallion and a few mares and foals.












One morning I got up extra early for an option takhi watching hike and was seriously questioning why I volunteered until I saw the sunrise. 




And then there was a sick or injured stallion who was forced away from his band hanging out that we were able to get pretty close to. Rangers monitor every single takhi in the park so I'm sure he was watched closely. I'm not as close to him as it seems, by the end of the trip I was the only person whose camera still had batteries so I had my choice of expensive long lenses that other people brought and couldn't use anymore.









Takhi have to worry about disease transfer from domestic horses and while the park said no domestic horses were allowed and that there were never horses in the park I saw herds every day. I even got to go on a park sponsored horse ride. I'm not sure if there were translation issues or what.




The horse ride was short but so much fun! I hadn't ridden in about 20 years, and even then it was only from girl scout camps, but it came right back to me. Now I want to do more horse expeditions but that means taking lessons and building strength first. And that means having money and time to do that. I graduate in December so maybe that will be my next big thing.


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## RollingAcres (Sep 4, 2018)

Beautiful horses!


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## Latestarter (Sep 4, 2018)

wow... what a trip!


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## HomesteaderWife (Sep 4, 2018)

I loved the photos especially of the wild and domestic horses! I've long admired the horses they ride in Mongolia- short and stout. I'm curious to know if you have photos of those handling eagles or on horseback?


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## Donna R. Raybon (Sep 4, 2018)

Amazing!  You are so blessed to have such opportunity,  thank you for posting!


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## Wehner Homestead (Sep 4, 2018)

This sounds like a once in a lifetime experience and your pictures are astounding! Thank you for sharing!!

How do they typically prepare the goat?


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## Roving Jacobs (Sep 4, 2018)

This is as close as I got to people looking majestic on horseback. This is in Sükhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.








The eagle hunters are much further North than I was. I did see a baby vulture the size of a plucked turkey. The mother was hovering ominously overhead so we didn't get too close.




Some day I would love to come back and see the eagle festival or naadam, the wrestling/archery/horse racing festival. It's really an amazing country to visit and everyone was so welcoming. It is pretty much on the opposite side of the world from me in Ohio though and it took literally days of travel to get there. I left from Cleveland on a Saturday at around 1 in the afternoon, then traveled through Chicago, Istanbul, Kyrgyzstan, and finally landed in Mongolia on Tuesday evening. Mongolia is 12 hours ahead of EST so that ate up some of it but it was still a long flight. Coming home I went through Beijing and D.C. and arrived the same day I left despite being in planes and airports for 27 hours.

It was worth it though. I loved seeing those wide open skies and vast mountains.


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## Roving Jacobs (Sep 4, 2018)

Wehner Homestead said:


> How do they typically prepare the goat?



Our cook was very impressive and I don't think we ever ate it the same way twice. They don't have access to a lot of spices or firewood so things were commonly just quickly stir fried with noodles or boiled. They slaughtered a sheep for us on our last day in the field and that got barbecued but that was a luxury. Most things got some salt, pepper, and dill but that's about it in terms of spice. There's a cool youtube channel here that shows traditional Mongolia foods.

We didn't get to try it this way but for celebrations they will take a whole goat, chop it up, then sew it back into the skin with root veggies and hot rocks. They cook it in the skin, basting it with fat and burning away the hair with a blow torch. When you cut it open you can eat the skin and meat and they pass around the hot rocks which are said to have healing properties.


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## Baymule (Sep 4, 2018)

Post more pictures! I am loving this!


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## mystang89 (Sep 5, 2018)

Thanks much for sharing this! There style of living is something I think many people need to remember.


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## promiseacres (Sep 5, 2018)




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## Mini Horses (Sep 5, 2018)

I see the yurts and wondering, are the nomads using them?  If so, were there any discussions as to how often they moved and how they transported?   Were some type of tents used for that group of people?   Do/are the people/herders actually just using any open countryside?     I'm thinking in contrast to USA where you do not have these options.     So, what seems to be the Mongolian structure for life as a livestock owner?  Are ?there villages where others live and such.


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## Mike CHS (Sep 5, 2018)

Thank you for sharing your adventure.


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## Roving Jacobs (Sep 5, 2018)

Mini Horses said:


> I see the yurts and wondering, are the nomads using them?  If so, were there any discussions as to how often they moved and how they transported?   Were some type of tents used for that group of people?   Do/are the people/herders actually just using any open countryside?     I'm thinking in contrast to USA where you do not have these options.     So, what seems to be the Mongolian structure for life as a livestock owner?  Are ?there villages where others live and such.



Yes, the nomadic people do use the gers! That's what most people who don't live in cities live in, although there are some small, simple houses here and there. They move seasonally, from grazing area to grazing area, so probably at least 4 times a year but some may move much more often. It started storming as we were packing up to leave ger camp so we didn't get to help take them down but apparently it's not too hard once you're used to it.

The inside is made up of decorated beams that can be taken down and stacked.




There's a ring around the top held up by some pillars.




The whole thing is wrapped in wool felt then fabric to keep it water tight. Unroll some laminate for the floor and you're set! Sometimes rodents like gerbils and pika wandered in and you woke up staring them in the face but most people have their beds raised and it's not a problem. Families we visited generally had at least 2-3 gers so one could be used exclusively for cooking, with one person sleeping there to watch the food, and the others for beds and living. Depending on the size gers can fit 5-8 people. Just have to watch your head around all the beams.They often had solar panels and satellite phones attached to the outside to keep in contact with friends and watch tv.

When taken down the families just stack it on top of the soviet vans or trucks everyone seemed to have and away they went. Those vans can do anything! We stopped for ice cream (flavor options included butter and cheese, I stuck with chocolate coated vanilla) and saw someone's ger all packed up in the back of a pickup with their bankhar dog perched on top guarding it like a black and tan lion. They definitely know how to pack and travel.




Nights get really cold, even in the summer, so I don't think many people sleep just out in the open. Instead if they need to bring baby goats or sheep someplace sheltered to watch overnight they just bring them into the gers. There aren't many villages or cities, people just pick spots with good grazing and set up their gers where ever they happen to be. It's all government land and no one owns any particular spots. The national park had roads but most places we just drove around across the steppe until we ran into groups and stopped to chat with them.


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## Baymule (Sep 6, 2018)

No fences and the animals don't scatter and run for the hills. What happens when any of our animals get loose? RUN! And yet, there are no fences, the animals are herded, but they stay around. Fascinating!


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## greybeard (Sep 19, 2018)

Hard to fathom that much public land where anyone can travel anywhere they wish without trespassing.


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## Simpleterrier (Sep 23, 2018)

Wow that is neat. I have been a few places one was Romania and every village has their milk cow heard and every morning they would come home  by themselves to the right house to be milked


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