A Brief Introduction to Ostrich Farming
We have prepared a short synopsis on the various advantages of ostrich farming and why farmers the world over are exploring the agricultural business of the 21st Century.

More detailed information is provided in the various links below.

Ostrich Products for Today's Market
Originally farmed exclusively for their exquisite feathers, ostriches are now raised commercially for their meat and leather.

Ostrich, the "healthy red meat," is a low fat, low calorie, low cholesterol alternative to traditional red and white meat - and is high in protein. Exquisite ostrich leather is the strongest commercially available leather in the world, easily recognised for its distinctive quill pattern and revered for its suppleness and softness. Initially, 100% of your revenue will be generated from the production of livestock for meat and ostrich Leather.

Although ostrich feathers and ostrich oil are both high-profile and well-known consumer products, the sheer volume of livestock required to produce sufficient quantities of ostrich feathers and ostrich oil precludes almost all ostrich farming operations from making these products commercially viable. This is not to say that you will never make any money from ostrich feathers and ostrich oil produced from your livestock, just do not enter the ostrich farming business thinking that these products will initially provide a constant or viable revenue!

Ostriches - a Very Fertile Animal

A nutritionally well fed and well cared for high pedigree female ostrich can easily produce 40 offspring per year. Coupled with a short gestation period of only 42 days to hatch an ostrich egg, it is easy to see why this is an industry worthy of investigation. When you add the longevity of breeding - 30 years or more - you begin to realise that 1,200 offspring from one high pedigree female bird can bring a long term and worthwhile farming operation.

Compare this with traditional farming of a red meat producing animal, such as a cow, and you can see why farmers the world over are investigating the ostrich industry.

Ostriches either breed in pairs, in threes (called a trio) or in a colony where many birds are placed in a very large pen. A good fertile male can easily service two and sometimes three females. Eggs are laid in clutches. The female will lay on a regular basis, every other day for example. She will maintain this for a period of time. The female will then take a break from laying eggs for a while and resume after a week or two.

Environmentally Friendly Ostrich Farming

The global focus of farming is now truly pointing towards environmentally friendly business operations. With the huge amounts of antibiotics being force fed into chickens, beef, pork and turkeys, together with intensive farming, steroids, growth hormones and all the other unnatural additives, it makes a fresh change to find a farming industry which does not require such techniques. Farming ostriches is environmentally friendly; steroid, antibiotic, hormone and force feeding free. Ostriches are free roaming livestock and feed off all natural Ostrich feed. Ostriches require little or no handling once they reach 4 or 5 months of age and are recognised as a genuine environmentally friendly animal.

Incredible Feed to Weight Ratio Gain
Farmed animals such as cattle and swine eat steroid-, antibiotic- and hormone-laced feed... and they eat an incredible amount of it. Cattle and swine can eat in excess of 20:1 in their feed to weight ratio. This means that they have to eat 20 pounds of feed to add 1 pound of weight.

The overall feed to weight ratio gain of an ostrich is 2:1 during the first few months of their lives and this climbs to only 3.5:1 during their normal development for processing at 9 months or so. The benefits to you are considerable: less maintenance, less feed and of course less animal waste!

Which countries can raise Ostriches?
Ostriches are already farmed in over 100 countries: from the cold winter climates of Alaska, Norway and Sweden, all the way south to the equatorial countries of Zaire, Brazil and Indonesia. Ostriches breed well in a warm climate, and heavy rain and thunderstorms will certainly affect the breeding cycle.

High humidity can also be a problem - not necessarily for breeding itself, but for young chicks. High humidity means high bacteria and young chicks are susceptible to catching all kinds of diseases when they are young.

A good supply of natural feed, including alfalfa (lucerne), corn, soy and wheat are a definite advantage as these are staple foods for an ostrich. An unlimited supply of fresh, clean water is an absolute necessity. Ostriches drink up to 2 gallons (9 litres) of water every day.

Conclusion
The environmental benefits, the excellent feed to weight ratio gains and the breeding proliferation of ostriches make commercial ostrich farming worthy of investigation.

We also know that ostrich handling after 4 - 5 months is very low and a good farm manager can easily take care of a farm of 100 breeding ostriches and hundreds of offspring.

From a consumer and marketing point of view, people are eating a much healthier diet and are turning to ostrich meat as a beef alternative. The demand for luxurious and easily recognised ostrich leather continues apace. The cosmetic industry continues its never ending search for eternal youth and exotic ostrich oil is beginning to receive its long overdue recognition. And, of course, ostrich feathers are a permanent fixture in the world's carnivals, Mardi Gras and festivals everywhere.

Farming ostriches can certainly be financially rewarding. But beware! Even though they are environmentally friendly and produce some wonderful products, as with all livestock, there are pitfall and danger areas!

The 2 biggest problems by far are:

• Poor nutrition including incorrect feeding, feeding cheap feed and feeding the wrong feeds.
• Marketing and sales of ostrich products - farmers are not good at this.

The answers to both these problems, and thousands of other questions, are all here on our Web site.