WORLD OSTRICH ASSOCIATION

Mission Statement

"To Represent The International Ostrich Industry Through Communication, Dissemination of Information and Provision of Industry Standards"

Newsletter No. 52 – July 2007

1. On Line Magazines

2. Marketing Starts on the Farm

3. The Importance of Attention to Detail

4. History of Feedstuff Availability

5. Communication

1. On Line Magazines

There is a wealth of information freely available today, in the mainstream livestock industries, thanks to the Internet. Information on ostrich is limited because we do not yet have commercial volumes of production or commercial production performance. However, we can learn a great deal from the information available to other specie, as the basic principles of livestock production are the same for all specie.

Magazines such as Feed Management, Poultry International, World Poultry and Feed International are all freely available. Other excellent web sites are The Pig Site and The Poultry Site. There are excellent articles in these magazines where the principles discussed also apply to Ostrich. For ostrich production to become commercially viable, detailed attention needs to be paid to every detail of management, understanding the economics of production livestock agriculture and knowing exactly what:

- breeder costs to produce one slaughter bird (not egg)

- feed conversion from per slaughter bird

- lean meat yield

- days taken to slaughter

- cost per kilo of meat

The document “Ostrich Benchmark Performance Targets” (http://www.world-ostrich.org/targets.htm) provides achievable benchmark guidelines as measurements of performance.

2. Marketing Starts on the Farm

The headline of this link is “Ethical food store opens with £12 ostrich eggs” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/06/nfood106.xml. When I visited the store last weekend there were no ostrich eggs and Rhea eggs were £25.00. The Rhea eggs were yellow in colour, instead of a good off-white colour.

This particular store’s marketing differentiation is their very high standards of animal welfare and all produce free from the many negatives that have increasingly become associated with food production in recent years. Their standards demonstrate clearly how marketing today starts on the farm and is a partnership from the farm to the plate. Readers can view their standards at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/meat-poultry/qualitystandards.html.

Eurepgap is a global standards certification scheme that many major buyers utilise. Newsletters 10, 23 and 42 have discussed the importance of quality marks and introduction of best practice.

One problem with ostrich production is that many become involved with no vision for the market. Producing meat and placing it in store with the hope of finding a market later is unlikely to work in today’s market place because, as can be seen with the increasing use of accreditation and quality standard schemes, you need your market established first. You need to know what your market demands and then produce to the standards they require. This is more challenging with Ostrich, as it is a new market in every country, with many buyers interested, but little understanding of the product.

3. The Importance of Attention to Detail

The June edition of Poultry International includes an article that is a review of different papers presented during the year covering nutrition and feeding. The full article can be viewed at http://www.poultryinternational-digital.com/poultryinternational/200706/. We will discuss a few of the topics discussed and how they apply to ostrich.

Formulating Organic Feeds:

There is an increasing demand in the market place for organic grown produce. To formulate for optimum health and production requires high quality ingredients and in some cases supplements of certain amino acids to maintain the best possible balance, not directly obtainable from the ingredients. The author discusses trials between conventional diets and organic diets using a range of organic supplements. They found that all the organic diets, with one exception, produced statistically poorer results when measuring bodyweight and feed efficiency. Mainstream industries have decades of research data and genetic improvements to enable them to carry out such trials.

With ostrich, we are at the beginning. No meaningful genetic improvement programs are yet in place. The starting point for genetic improvement is ensuring that the nutrition is adequate to support the genetics. A guide to whether your nutritional program is adequate is seen in performance of the birds and the benchmark target figures are the first place to check. If birds are not gaining muscle, produce too much fat (a certain amount of fat is essential), take too long to reach slaughter – then the first place to start is the nutritional program. It is more important to get these basics correct at this stage of our industry, than worry about producing for the organic market.

Drying Temperature of Maize

The importance of ingredient quality in livestock production cannot be overemphasized. A review of the drying temperature of maize resulted in clearly defining that maize dried at too high a temperature reduces the feeding value of that maize. The destruction of enzymes when drying maize at high temperatures is the reason given for the loss of feeding (productive) performance of the maize.

In this discussion it is worth reminding readers that what may be a minor error in with mainstream livestock specie, can be significant to ostrich. This is because of the low daily intake of feed and the increased nutrient density required by ostrich.

DDGS (Distillers Dried Grain with Solubles)

This is a by product of the Ethanol industry. Note is made of the fact that the quality of the product can vary depending on the ethanol plant, but the consistency of the product from the same plant is very stable. One of the secrets to successful feeding is paying great attention to minimising the variables as much as possible.

Summary

These are just 3 examples of the attention to detail that is required to optimise production from feed rations. Feed is the single most important input cost in livestock production. The feed controls Production, Reproduction and Product Quality – it controls the whole economics of the farm. Ostrich are extremely sensitive to variations, so it is extremely important that all aspects of management are as tight as possible, with close attention paid to every detail.

4. History of Feedstuff Availability

We regularly reference the long period that poultry and other mainstream industries have developed to their current high standards and efficiencies in production. Feed Management January 2007 published an interesting summary of feedstuff availability in poultry rations by decade.

Before 1900 - Barley, buckwheat, corn, granite gut, liquid mill products, oats, oyster shell, table scraps, wheat

1900 – 1910 - Bonemeal, green bran, linseed meal, wheat bran, wheat middlings

1910 – 1920 - Alfalfa meal, corn gluten feed and meal, dried buttermilk, brewers dried yeast, fish meal, ground limestone, meat scraps, sprouted grasses

1920 – 1930 - Cod liver oil, dried skim milk

1930 – 1940 - Dried whey, manganese sulphate, milo, soybean oil meal

1940 – 1950 - Deactivated animal sterols, dicalcium phosphate, liver meal, riboflavin supplements

1950 – 1960 - Antibiotic feed supplements, antioxidants, arsenic compounds, distillers dried solubles, feather meal, fermentation solubles, inedible animal fat, methionine, vitamin B12 supplement

1960 – 1970 - Complete vitamin supplements, complex trace minerals mixtures, lysine

All these improvements have assisted poultry producers to become increasingly efficient. The list stopped at 1970, but the impact of vitamin supplements, the complex trace minerals and other supplements included in premixes, have had a very significant and positive impact on the continual improvements in performance. In fact, they have revolutionised the economics of livestock production.

These supplements and premixes improve year on year – they are now the engine of all livestock production rations. Increasing attention to feedstuff quality has really boosted the effectiveness of those inventions. During the same period, arable farmers have been forced to improve what they were doing and produce a higher yielding product through healthier plant production, and that in turn gave livestock another boost and blended wonderfully with these inventions.

Most important is the fact that all these nutritional improvements when supported by excellent feed and farm management have made possible the continual improvements in genetic performance. This applies to all production livestock.

Recently I visited my brother’s farm. They were in the process of building a new dairy as the old dairy has become too small. I watched the cows exiting from the old milking parlour, they took up the full width of the doors and the largest cows had to stoop to exit. At the time of installation, 30 years ago, those doors allowed ample width and height for the cows to exit. The increased size enables increased milk production, but that additional production requires the correct nutritional support or the cows simply do not get back in calf and have a very short productive life. Many dairy herds have doubled production over that period. The improvements in the nutritional supplements formulated to work with the nutrients provided by the main ingredients, enable improved utilisation of all nutrients and overall greater feed efficiency.

What is the impact on Ostrich of these improvements? Figure 1 illustrates the difference in a breeder hen maintained on a high mixed grain diet that is low in protein and vitamin and mineral supplementation and a hen fed a diet with a reasonable balance of lucerne, grains and protein ingredients with high supplemented vitamin and minerals.

Figure 1 - Comparative Breeder Hens

These photographs show clearly the differences in body condition and overall look of well being between the two hens. The hen on the right is likely to be more productive and able to pack more nutrients into her eggs than the hen on the left.

5. Communication

The member’s mailing list is available for any member to post messages and develop discussions. If any member would like further clarification, you may not agree with or simply would like to make a comment on any item in the newsletter the member’s list is an excellent resource.

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