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WORLD OSTRICH ASSOCIATION Mission Statement "To Represent The International Ostrich Industry
Through Communication, Dissemination of Information and Provision of Industry
Standards" |
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1.
World
Poultry Ostrich Blog 2.
SA
Deregister Hormonal Growth Stimulants in Ostrich 3.
Increasing
Demand for Meat Protein 4.
What is our
Market? 5.
Ostrich Meat
Prices 6.
World
Ostrich Congress(s) 2007 7.
World
Ostrich Association AGM |
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1.
World Poultry Ostrich
Blog Eduardo Carbajo
from Spain joined the World Poultry bloggers to provide ostrich related
blogs. His first topic was welfare of ostrich. The site
provides an opportunity to comment on any matters raised for
discussion. You can access the blogs at: http://www.worldpoultry.net/blogs/authorId/31123/eduardo_carbajo.html
2.
SA Deregister Hormonal Growth Stimulants in Ostrich The following press release
was published on October 10th The
Department of Agriculture together with the relevant pharmaceutical industry
and the South African Ostrich Business Chamber, have decided to remove all
claims from all hormonal growth stimulant products on ostriches. The reason
for such a decision is on the basis that the EU is a major export destination
for South African ostrich meat. The EU
prohibits the use of hormonal growth stimulants in animals that are
slaughtered for human consumption. As a consequence, all hormonal
growth stimulant products have been de-registered for use in ostriches. All
hormonal growth preparations whose package inserts have ostrich claims should
be removed from the shelves with immediate effect. This is excellent
news. It is disappointing that some felt it necessary to include this
method of feeding ostrich when the target market is high-end buyers who do
not wish to have these products fed to the animals that provide their meat.
This ban on using HGS in ostrich by the South African authorities is as a
direct result of traces found in ostrich feed during routine inspection by
the EU authorities. 3.
Increasing
Demand for Meat Protein The following are all
interesting articles discussing the future demand for meat protein, the
driving forces and the problems this creates. Please click on the title
to download and read each article, they discuss some important and
interesting issues: Can we Feed
the Animals? (Short version) Can
we Feed the Animals? Origins and Implications of Rising Meat Demand
(Full Paper) China’s
rapidly growing meat demand: a domestic or an international challenge? How to feed
2 billion more mouths in 2030? Here are some answers There are many more articles
available with similar discussions - last month’s issue of World Poultry
carried an article on a similar topic, but that is not yet published on the
Internet. This is a brief summary of their content: -
further confirmation of the
increasing demand for meat protein -
that increase coming in
developing countries driven by the increasing buying power of consumers in
those countries -
developed countries have
reached their growth limit when measured in volume as people have a finite
daily consumption of meat -
poultry likely to take the
bulk of the increase because of religious constraints on pig meat consumption -
increased production likely
to come in developing countries because of reduced production costs -
meat production coming mainly
from grains in developed countries -
developing countries produce
meat from grazing, crop residues and household waste -
pressure on our natural
resources to produce the additional production -
technology improving to help
provide sustainable agriculture Ostrich has a role to play
in contributing to the increased demand. As we mention regularly,
with ostrich we have one of the most feed efficient of all farmed animals and
is probably the most feed efficient of all red meat production animals, when
farmed in the right way. Ostrich meat is acceptable to most religious
groups including those unable to eat pig meat, thus providing an alternative
to poultry meat – not a replacement, just providing more variability for
consumers. Table 1 illustrates the days
to slaughter for broiler chicken and different types of pigs, their
live-weight and their feed conversion. It is interesting to compare
these figures against the production potential of ostrich. The figures
for ostrich assume 5 years and 10 years of development from introducing
management systems that support high levels of production and nutrition that
supports the full genetic production potential in the same manner that pig
and poultry production has achieved. Table 2- Comparative Production Data How many days do you
currently take to get your bird’s to slaughter, what is their liveweight,
what are the meat yields and what is the feed conversion? Whether your
production is large or small these are essential measurements of performance
to optimise in order to achieve sustainable commercial viability.
Optimising the ability to convert feed efficiently requires fewer resources
to produce the meat. The fewer days taken to take to slaughter, the
less area required, less water to drink and never forgetting that when
we feed the birds for maximum production as much as 40% of an ostrich
slaughter bird ration is Alfalfa, thus reducing the demand for grains while
providing an excellent rotational crop. During the past month, I
have again read articles about excited small producers discussing grazing
their ostrich. We must warn members that depending on grazing grass for
ostrich usually results in disappointing
results with high levels of chick mortality and other metabolic
problems. It will never be possible to achieve the production
efficiencies previously discussed. 4.
What is
our Market? Clearly, this large increase
in meat demand offers tremendous market potential for ostrich. To
supply that market, volumes have to increase significantly. I would
suggest we have a phased approach to the markets while building growth that
is sustainable to achieve the volumes required to support
that increased demand for meat protein. The phased approach
described below can apply to whichever country one is working in, as every
country has a high-end market and many cannot export to the highest value
markets. Establishing the markets in one’s own country first should
remain a priority. Phase 1: Health issues, animal
welfare concerns and increasing wealth are among the influences that are
changing meat consumption habits in the European, North American and
other high end markets. Here, consumers have sufficient wealth that
they can now afford to be selective in their choices of meat and willing to
pay a premium. Other meats – the category ostrich falls under - as
discussed in Newsletter
No. 40, currently account for around 4% of total meat consumed worldwide
(30% in Europe). This market would be considerably larger if there was a
consistent supply in sufficient volume and produced at commercially
attractive prices. Examples of meats classified
as alternative meats are Buffalo/Bison, Venison, Kangaroo, Crocodile, Rabbit,
Wild Boar and Reindeer. As illustrated above, Ostrich is proven to have
the potential for commercial production on sufficient scale to compliment pig
and poultry production as major suppliers of meat protein, when applying the
right techniques to their production. Buffalo and Venison are both
ruminant meats. Not only are ruminants less feed efficient, they also
have other negative environmental concerns. According to a study by the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), greenhouse gases from
manure and livestock flatulence are responsible for nearly 20% of the total
gas trapped in the atmosphere of the planet. They reference Ruminant
animals, and in particular cattle, as the principal source of methane
emissions from enteric fermentation. The daily emissions from one cow
equate to the emissions from a large 4x4 vehicle! (http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/lead/x6116e/x6116e00.htm).
This top end of the meat
market is willing to pay premium prices. Supplying these markets
provides the additional revenue while volumes are low and production costs
are high. These markets are serviced by specialist buyers
supplying the retail and service industry at the top end of the market that
purchase in lower volume and willing to pay a premium for a specialist meat. This puts the industry on
the path to sustainable production that is more able to provide data to
effectively predict production. Data is required to support protocols
laid down by the larger buyers. These protocols are becoming
increasingly important as pressure increases from not only the animal rights
lobbyists but also from the consumer concerned how the animals they eat are
raised and fed. Phase 2: Phase 3: The production of
ostrich meat peaked in 2002 with over 550,000 slaughter birds produced in
that year, the number today is less than half.
Production remains around 60% in South Africa with the balance spread amongst
a dozen different regions, all lacking coordinated production providing
erratic volume and quality. South African production especially has
been disrupted a number of times over the years with health issues in their
herd resulting in closure of their export borders. The European buyers
have witnessed their sales halved through lack of supply, not lack of
demand. Ostrich will only get past Phase 1 with the introduction of
modern production systems capable of supporting their production potential. 5.
Ostrich
Meat Prices Increase Ostrich Production in South
Africa continues to fall along with a shortage in all ‘game’ meats.
This shortage is signalling a rise in the prices for all game meats. As
a result, the South African processors are paying significantly increased
prices to their farmers this slaughter season. This provides an
opportunity to move ostrich production away from the current low productivity
utilising outdated feeding and production practices and into a modern
commercial industry as. Of all the game meats, only Ostrich has the ability
to become as efficient a producer of meat protein as pig and poultry. 6.
World Ostrich
Congress(s) 2007 Once again, October
witnessed two World Ostrich Congresses – one in Latvia and one in
Greece. A report would be most welcomed from any member(s) who
attended either of these congresses. 7.
Annual
General Meeting 2007 The Annual General Meeting
was held on 23rd October 2007. The minutes are available at
the web site – http://www.world-ostrich.org/member/min2007.htm
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