Two Rogue Valley ventures — one that raises yaks and the other focusing on bison — are using USDA grants to expand.

Firebird Farms outside Ashland and Wild Oasis Bison Ranch, which was started near Butte Falls, were among 11 Oregon agricultural operations chosen to receive a total of $2.1 million in grants last October.

“In order to get more returns on agricultural endeavors, you really have to diversify and maximize your product lines and commodities,” said Sophia Weiss, owner of Firebird Farms, which raises yaks.

The USDA grants are awarded annually to small farms and agricultural producers across the country to support additional revenue streams from their operations — often referred to as added value — that might otherwise be out of reach.

Firebird Farms received a $234,895 award to create new revenue streams from its yak herd. Wild Oasis Bison Ranch received $250,000. 

“It’s the age-old conundrum. When you’re a small business owner and a farmer, you just don’t have time to focus on those additional revenue streams to make your business successful. What this grant allows you to do is put those things in the hands of professionals like marketing teams, or in my case tanners and yarn producers,” Weiss said.

For years, Weiss said, she had been dreaming of making the most of what a yak can provide. In the process of harvesting the animals for their meat, the pelt, skull and bones can all be used. Every spring when the animals are sheared, their luxuriant hair can be turned into soft, naturally temperature-regulating textiles.

“Their skulls are beautiful. I took a number of them and had them professionally cleaned. I’m going to be doing artwork, carvings and inlay on them. I can make buttons and flasks from the horns, beads and things from the bones. I’ve saved many gorgeous hides for leather goods,” she said.

For the yak wool, in a stroke of luck, a yak wool expert happens to have a shop in Roseburg — Little Hawk Yarns — and Weiss said she had already formed a relationship with the owner, Katrina Tylee, at a yak conference. 

Local fiber producers have long asked Weiss for yak wool. But even with a known demand for the product, she hadn’t been able to produce it. Yak wool is different than other wools, she explained. Its longer fibers are difficult to process. Through the grant, Weiss will collaborate with Tylee and other producers, wasting nothing from her herd.

For Elori Moore of Wild Oasis Bison Ranch, the grant is a boon but not a complete solution to the struggles of modern Oregon agriculture. 

“It’s hard because it’s a reimbursement grant. You have to spend the money, and they pay you back. But we have used it for our website and for marketing. It also allowed us to do nationwide shipping, which is huge for us,” she said. 

“It’s very snowy and cold, but I like the sense of community here,” she said of her and her husband’s new home in LaPine south of Bend.

Despite building a solid base of customers in the Rogue Valley, Moore said, a combination of forces pushed her business from Jackson County to Deschutes County this year.

In late 2020, she was forced to refund Christmas roast orders when a pandemic-related meat shortage strained already limited butchering options in Southern Oregon. Even booking months in advance, she said, a shortage of animal harvesting options left her unable to send her bison to the coolers in time for Christmas.

“We were growing. We were in growing-pains mode,” she said.

Having more orders than she could fill was compounded by the high cost of hay, she said.

After selling the ranch on Butte Falls Highway and moving to La Pine, Moore has her herds grazing and growing on friends’ ranches in Idaho and Montana until she can find a place for them in Deschutes County. Spreading her business across three states has given her the ability to reliably harvest her animals and meet customer demand, she said, which still includes people in Southern Oregon.

Moore said she plans to work with Legend Cider Co. and move into a 19,000-square-foot space being renovated by the cider company in La Pine. Legend — familiar to Rogue Valley residents through its taphouse storefront at 245 W. Valley View Road in Talent — has expanded to a space at 52670 Highway 97 in La Pine.

“I got to know them (the owners of Legend), and they’re such sweet people. They were like, ‘You have to be in our space.’ There’s been delays in setting up, but we’ll move in there. The goal is to keep coming down to Medford and Grants Pass for customers who want our bison,” she said.

To learn more about the Firebird Farms, visit https://firebirdfarms.com/. For more about Wild Oasis Bison Ranch, visit www.wildoasisbisonranch.com or call Moore at 541-841-8842.