Credentials, Accomplishments, and Experience

Daryl Holle

International Ostrich & Emu Nutrition Expert Consultant
International Ostrich & Emu Farm Management Expert Consultant
2001 Blue Mountain Ave.
Berthoud, CO 80513
Phone: 303-678-7343

Credentials:
– Animal Nutrition Consultant, specializing in ostrich and emu nutrition since 1990, providing services to farmers throughout the United States. In 1995, this service expanded worldwide to South Africa, United Kingdom, Egypt, Spain, Sweden, South America, Greece, Mexico, Canada with new countries coming every month.

– Ostrich and Emu Farm Management Consultant in the U.S. since 1992, expanding in 1995 with worldwide service through a representative in South Africa that I trained for 3 years.

– Owner and President of Blue Mountain Feeds, Inc., a Colorado corporation doing business throughout the world in ostrich and emu feeds and feed premixes.

– Owner of small ostrich breeder bird farm in Berthoud, Colorado.

– Elected President of the World Ostrich Association in Sept., 2002.

– Elected Chairman of the National Ratite Nutrition Committee of the National Ratite Producers Cooperative in Sept., 2002, to develop its national feed program standards.

– Organized and founded Blue Mountain International Ostrich Alliance in 1997 and serve as its coordinator for all activities. The BMIOA works with setting product quality standards for the ostrich industry and also works with proper ostrich genetic selections.

– Organized the development of “Ratite DataSync Farm Production” software for farmer bird data tracking that includes a central data collection facility for genetic improvement practices. This program was announced in fall, 2002.

– Past President and Board of Director of Premium Red Meats, Inc., a Kansas meat-processing corporation doing business in Oakley, Kansas. This company specializes in raising, processing and packaging naturally-fed ostrich, emu, pork, beef and buffalo meat.

– Past General Manager of Blue Mountain Premium Meats in Oakley, Kansas, a USDA-certified meat processing plant specializing in ostrich, emu, beef, buffalo, and pork.

– Animal Nutrition Consultant, specializing in dairy cattle nutrition since 1980.

– Dairy Cattle Farm Management Consultant since 1980, serving thousands of dairy cattle in Boulder, Larimer, and Weld Counties in Colorado.

– Developed dairy cattle premixes for two major premix companies in the Midwest USA resulting in new production standards being set.

– Owned/managed large dairy farm in Longmont, Colorado, milking 400 head at full capacity. I constantly managed nearly 1,000 head of cattle at this same facility.

– Owned/managed medium-size dairy in Loveland, Colorado, milking 100 head at full capacity.

Accomplishments:
– Developed sound nutritional programs for ostrich, emu, and rhea in 1990 along with guidelines and recommendations for productive farming management operations resulting in quality end products.

– Served on a national ad hoc committee with other ostrich and emu nutritionists and researchers in an attempt to ascertain the daily nutritional requirements for ostrich and emu.

– Authored and published the following books, which are sold worldwide:

Ratite Feeds & Feeding, 1995
Ratite Feeds & Feeding – Appendix 1, 1998
Ratite Feeds & Feeding – Appendix 2, 1999
Ostrich Feeds & Feeding, 2000
Understanding Production Ostrich Nutrition, 2001
Ostrich Diagnostic Centre, 2001
Ostrich Feeds & Feeding, 2001

– Co-authored “Lipid (Fat) Utilization in Ostrich” scientific paper for Outdshoorn University, Outdshoorn, South Africa, recently published in the SA Veterinarians Association Scientific Journal.

– Retained to co-author and re-write a previously-published book (1995) Ostrich Farm Management, to include the latest updates of ostrich technology and make corrections to old data now known to be erroneous. The book now covers all subjects pertaining to ostrich including nutrition, breeding, special behavior traits, history, facilities, production, and management. This book re-write is complete and will to go printers in near future; book already has advance orders worldwide.

– Numerous speaking engagements to many state ostrich and emu associations in the U.S. as an authority on Ratite Nutrition and Ratite Farm Management. This has now expanded globally through my representative in South Africa who regularly speaks at major national and international ostrich meetings.

– Developed the first ostrich meat quality grading system called the “Blue Mountain Ostrich Carcass Grade & Yield System” in 1997. This system is now being used in many parts of the world as a method to grade ostrich meat for quality and consistency.

– Served as training instructor for USDA meat inspectors to assist them with the unique traits and challenges of identifying quality ostrich and emu meat at processing. The last training session was for the Midwestern USDA region of inspectors in February, 2000.

– Co-developed an ostrich hide quality grading system in 1998, the “Blue Mountain Hide Grading System” is now being used in many parts of the world by ostrich hide buyers and sellers.

– Recently requested to develop books and videotapes that will establish an International Standard of ostrich muscle names, muscle types, meat quality ranges, hide quality standards, and establish a standard for harvesting/processing of same.

– Established, designed and developed an Ostrich Diagnostic Center on the internet at www.blue-mountain.net that allows veterinarians and farmers worldwide to solve many of their own management and bird problems. If they cannot solve them, I am available to help.

– Established four different internet mailing lists for worldwide subscribers that are constantly discussing ostrich and emu management difficulties and illness problems. The subscriber lists are growing monthly.

– Active in ostrich and emu government legislation and assisted with passage of one bill in U.S. Congress and one bill in U.S. Senate for USDA mandatory inspection of ostrich and emu meat in the United States.

– Developed an Ostrich Nutrition and Management newsletter sent by email once a month to ostrich farmers, veterinarians and industry people throughout the world by subscription.

– Write articles regularly on ostrich-related subjects that are picked up by several industry magazines in the U.S. and abroad and by a large ostrich internet company with 26,000 subscribers.

Experiences:
– Have had my own ostrich test flock since 1990 and have completed numerous experimentation projects on over 100 differing birds in Berthoud, Colorado, USA.

– Worked directly with hundreds of ratite farmers throughout the U.S. since 1992 and have dealt with tens of thousands of birds over those years regarding nutritional, metabolic, production, and toxicity problems, environmental exposures, and farm management practices.

– Consulted on severe bird problem cases for farmers and other feed companies concerning feed toxicity, mismanagement, and bird-stress problems from environmental disturbances, unique ostrich and emu sensitivity problems, and behavioral response factors unique to ostrich and emu.

– Since 1996, worked through my representative in South Africa on hundreds of thousands of birds in South Africa and other countries. (A large South African farm size is 25,000+ birds.)

– Have done numerous problem-identification projects in ostrich and emu since 1992, including feeding trials for correct diet, egg fertility, mating behavior, metabolic disorders, toxicity identifications, general behavioral characteristics of ostrich and emu, meat and hide quality, and breeding characteristics projects. This research has led to a new level of understanding in the cause of “yellow liver syndrome” in ostrich chicks, identifying the true cause of “gut impactions” in ostrich, identifying the causes of “yellow fat syndrome” in ostrich, identifying causes of “multi-colored livers and muscles” in ostriches, and identifying causes of “stress” in ostrich and how they react to different environmental factors.

– Organized a producer group in 1997 consisting of ostrich farmers in Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming and Nebraska called Premium Red Meat, Inc. that purchased a USDA-inspected meat processing plant in 1999, located in Oakley, Kansas. This group processes ostrich and emu (and other species) and sells ostrich meat under USDA seal with the brand name of Blue Mountain Ostrich Meats, under license of Blue Mountain Feeds of Colorado. Blue Mountain Feeds is a Colorado corporation owned by Daryl & Donna Holle and has trademarked logos of Blue Mountain Ostrich Meats, Blue Mountain Ostrich Oil, Blue Mountain Ostrich Leather, Blue Mountain Feeds International, Blue Mountain Premium Meats, Blue Mountain Ostrich Genetics, and soon to be expanded to Blue Mountain Premium Pork, Blue Mountain Premium Beef, and Blue Mountain Premium Buffalo.

Summary:
Being self-employed in the Ratite Industry nearly 2 decades now, I have had the unique opportunity to work with these birds 7 days a week with utmost dedication. I work with somebody’s birds every day either in person, over the phone, or over the Internet. This has allowed me a unique position of experience with almost any situation relating to Ratites. Ratites is ALL I DO these days and I thouroughly enjoy as they are they are a most unique and interesting animal to work with once one understands them.