Overview
The Altiplano of Peru is a high arid grassland with limited opportunity for plant agriculture. Camelids thrive but are not very productive and productive bovids are ill adapted to high altitudes. A breeding scheme has been used for thousands of years by Central Asia herders to create a high altitude adapted milking cow by crossing Yaks with milk cows.

A consortium of three Universities : UW-Madison, USA; Universidad Nacional del Altiplano, Peru; Universidad de la Frontera, Chile ; the Peruvian Agricultural Ministry, Centro de Investigación de Recursos Naturales y Medio Ambiente (CIRNMA) and Bomed, Inc (USA) with funding from USAID and The Association Liason Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO) will research the feasibility of using modern embryo biology to emulate the crossbred scheme of the Asian herders.