BM Ostrich Nutrition Bulletins : Ostrich Industry Review of 2001

January 5, 2002
Bulletin #75

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Bulletin of the Month
Ostrich Industry Review of 2001

By: Fiona Benson, Blue Mountain International

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Bulletin of the Month

Ostrich Industry Review of 2001

Happy New Year to everyone and may 2002 be your best year yet. At the beginning of each year for the past few years, I have used this time to review the progress of our industry over the past 12 months. It is my guess that in years to come we will look back on the Year 2001 as a"turning point"for the Ostrich Industry. 2001 was the year which clearly identified the fact that in order to develop as a sustainable and growth Ostrich industry, meat has to be accepted as the primary product, the Ostrich skin a "highly valued" secondary product and the need to develop NEW markets for both.

Most newcomers entering the industry have recognised the potential of Ostrich as a meat production livestock specie. Over the years, I have attended a number of International conferences where the message has been to "control" production as the market was for only 200,000 birds and growth only expected at a low growth rate per annum. These numbers based on growth of Ostrich as a producer of "exotic" leather. Common sense clearly indicates that there is no room for any newcomers in this industry if this were truly the case.

The following statement taken from a paper presented at the IOA Leather Conference in Hong Kong in the early part of the year sums up well the reasons why there has been a conflict between the two products:

Quote:
"Mr Chairman, we need to look at the impact of the demand for ostrich meat in Europe. There is a fear that the industry will be meat driven. In my opinion, it is not making economic sense if meat is only contributing 25% to the total value of the bird. Farmers are daily told by animal nutritionists that they can reach slaughter weight at the age of 9 months. A 9 month old bird does not produce an acceptable leather. The recommended age for slaughtering is 13 months at least. I would like to state that in the recent times, nutritionists had short term goals over-emphasizing weight as a factor and cause substantial damage to the quality of raw materials, especially skin substance and quill development. I would like to say Mr Chairman, they have pushed too far, the tanneries will change the rules to ensure good quality ostrich leather."
End Quote

There is no reason to "fear" that the industry will be meat driven, but rather "welcome" the opportunities it provides to grow this industry and provide good earnings for all involved at all stages of the production chain. The BSE problems in Europe, combined with the consumer move to low fat foods, have provided the industry with a golden opportunity.

This opinion of the South African industry, which states that development of the meat industry is seen as a threat, has arisen because the South African industry have become accustomed to birds of 95kgs liveweight producing an average of 25kgs of meat and that meat had a local reputation as "the poor man's meat". Many readers will know that in 1996/1997 Blue Mountain published the results of field trials on the Internet each month the birds were weighed...not waiting for the end of the trials but rather reporting the progress of the trials as they progressed month by month. These trials were performed in the United States. For most of us living outside the US this was our first introduction to BM. These showed average liveweights in excess of 140kgs over 3 batches of birds at 12 months. That got my attention. So I set about understanding as much as I could as to what lay behind these BM feeding trial results and the economics of them as one part of my overall understanding of this new livestock production industry. Nearly 100% of the difference in liveweight I learned is in fact additional muscle development...muscle development is MEAT. When you do the sums of course, nearly 100% additional meat revenue transforms the contribution that meat revenue contributes to the total value of the bird.

Common sense tells us that when you have faster growing "healthier" birds, there has to be an improvement in the condition of the skin. Observations clearly demonstrate significant differences in feather development between healthy birds and unhealthy birds. Common sense tells us that this has to have an effect on follicle development....normally these differences are extremely variable for reasons that are very easy to understand, once the underlying influences of good nutrition are understood.

As most readers will know by now I moved to a larger farm in June last year in an effort to produce a reasonable number of birds in South Africa raised on very much higher levels of nutrition than has ever been experienced in South Africa. This year I was able to produce a test sample of birds raised on the nearest I could achieve to Blue Mountain rations given my limited resources, low volume and the problems that creates with ability to purchase quality ingredients ... especially Lucerne... in a country that grows extremely variable lucerne. South Africa does not yet operate a farmer payment structure related to quality. I used Blue Mountain formulations and the Blue Mountain MVTM premix on my birds. In November, we test slaughtered a chick at just 10mths of age and another at just 8mths of age. The 8mth Chick yielded meat to the 12-14mth SA average and the 10mth bird 40% above the SA average. The skins were finished in crust just before Christmas and it has been acknowledged by the tannery as very acceptable follicle development. Not only were these young skins very acceptable, but they also included an added comment:

"These are very nice skins, I wish we could have hundreds more like them".

During 2001, I was asked by a producer from outside SA why BM does not have a "post finisher" ration. The answer is of course that this "post finisher" idea came about to "hold" birds till 13-14mths as that was the perceived correct age for slaughter to produce an acceptable skin. With no requirement to hold birds, IF the chicks have been raised on rations of adequate nutritional levels to produce a healthy skin at a very much younger age AND produce increased meat yields, clearly there is no requirement for a "post finisher" ration.

This year a number of people have shared with me their lack of confidence that nutrition can make such a difference. Let me share with you another lesson I have learned on the importance of nutrition. When I returned from my time away from home in June, I thought we were going to loose one of our dogs (named Luma) at only 8 years of age. She walked into our house at an estimated 8 weeks of age very sick--poor nutrition at the most critical stage of her life. We have fed her a variety of the local supermarket dog foods. Our vet diagnosed liver failure and acknowledging that he was most familiar with the symptoms she was demonstrating. He gave her drugs to alleviate the symptoms (at huge expense of course), but told me that the best we could do for her was to buy a quality US produced dog food they sell. He went onto state that the only problem he has in recommending this quality US dog food is that he never sees these dogs or cats in his surgery for treatment and that is his major source of revenue. Luma is now fit and well and back to her normal self.

The statement in the earlier quotation: "nutritionists had short term goals over-emphasizing weight as a factor and cause substantial damage to the quality of raw materials"--I would suggest is a very incorrect statement. Nutrition is the key to the commercial viability of any livestock production industry. Nutrition controls the QUALITY of the products. Therefore, it is easy to understand that Nutrition controls the QUALITY OF OSTRICH products.

During the year I was also asked the question...."Where do you see the industry 10 years from now?" This is my answer:

Where will the industry be in 10 years? Some production facts and statistics to consider:

Ostrich Farmers, for the most part, currently keep minimal records. I would suggest that it is reasonable to work with an average 10-20 chicks per hen yielding with an average of 25kgs meat in 12-14mths as a basis for calculating today's current production. Before that can change, it will take existing Breeder birds 2 years to respond to the levels of nutrition required for optimum production and the next generation of breeders to begin to attain the potential production levels of their genetic lineage.

Therefore for the first 5 years production will be unpredictable. This will be severely aggravated by the requirement to elevate the quality standards and volume of Lucerne Production in most areas and how quickly this can be achieved. Additionally there will be new staff to gain experience.

It is reasonable to expect that production herds in 10 years should be averaging 80 chicks/annum with better herds achieving higher levels of production. This is herds that adopt the new production nutrition technology, full production management programs and access to quality lucerne along with other higher quality feed ingredients. The quality and availability of the lucerne is a limiting factor.

So for every 100 breeder hens maintained on production farms it could be expected to see a move from +/- 2000 slaughter birds to 8000+ slaughter birds--an additional 6000 slaughter birds from the same number of breeders. To put this into perspective on cost effectiveness, this same number of breeders will consume the same volume of feed. Therefore the feed efficiency is very significant--moving from an average of 60kgs of Breeder ration/chick to 6 ½ kgs of Breeder ration/slaughter chick. Production Nutrition technology will cost more per tonne than most current rations used, but no more than double (depending on the current rations being fed)..in some cases only 25% more.

Dependent on what will ultimately prove to be the final slaughter age and the number of birds we find with the Kleinzee (small) type of genetics, meat production can be expected to increase by at least 50% in the first years. Meat yield increases can be expected to be greater than 100% in 10 years, as herd averages, since these levels have already been achieved outside South Africa. These improved levels of performance will only happen in herds that adopt the new production nutritional technology, have access to quality lucerne and full production management programs in place. These herds will see increased production steadily over the years, in a similar manner that other production livestock specie have improved over the past few decades.

For progressive producers that adopt the new production nutrition technology, combined with full production management programs, it is reasonable to expect that for every 100 hens, production will move from at best an average of 20 slaughter chicks/hen producing 50 tonnes of meat per 100 hens to 80 Chicks/hen producing 300 + tonnes of meat per 100 hens. 10 years from now, processors will be able to predict accurately the number of birds received on a daily basis and be processing birds with a far greater uniformity of carcasses from those producers that have adapted to modern production nutrition technology and management programs. Now add to this a younger bird at slaughter, it gives us a few figures to reflect on:

Average Feed consumption to 10 months = 450-500kgs
Average Feed consumption to 14 months = 700-750kgs

When 14month old birds are only producing +/- 25kgs of meat, it is taking 28kgs - 30kgs to produce 1 kg of meat. The 10month bird producing +/- 45kgs meat requires only 10kgs of feed to produce 1kgs of meat. This is meat with no bone in. Now THAT is the feed cost efficiency we all need to work towards and it is most achievable. This type of modern, efficient bird also requires less infrastructure and less working capital required for the processor when slaughtering in 70% of the time (more kgs meat per bird). The producer also requires less infrastructure and working capital when producing birds in 70% of the time.

With world population reported to be increasing, putting pressure on current resources. An animal as feed efficient as Ostrich, when fed a proper nutritional diet, has many economic benefits for the farmer, processor and the consumer.

2001 once again proved that we now have the knowledge base to totally change the Ostrich Industry to a viable Livestock production industry. There were two major conferences during the latter part of the year. In South Africa, a conference to discuss how to take the industry "From Crisis to Sustainability". In Germany, a message from the marketers of the meat to please increase the production. Both conferences emphasising the need to begin implementing that knowledge on a large scale so we can get on with producing Ostrich the way they were meant to be produced. I have proven to myself that the potential is there, now we just have to work together to make it happen for the industry as well!

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