# anyone any experience of Ostrich farming?



## skinnyjoe313 (Aug 6, 2011)

Hello all,

First of all sorry if this is in the wrong section (if so mods please move)

Im Joe im 21 years old

errm this sounds really mad but hear me out im thinking of maybe getting in to Ostrich farming i know nothing of it but an really interested in getting into the industry

i know you need to apply for a Dangerous Wild Animals License, does anyone know how hard it is to get accepted for one? and the cost of application?

i beleave you need a minimum of a quater of an acer of land for it not to be seen as battery farming by DEFRA?

does anyone know the feeding costs of Ostrichs? think a fully grow bird needs 2kg of food aday?
Blue Mountain Ostrich Feed Program
i found this on blue moutain feeds website but it gives no costs

im thinking of phoning the British Domesticated Ostrich Association for some advice. do you think that would be a good idea

i know i need to do a LOT research but im determined to give it ago

i fully understand is a very hard industry with atleast 5/6 years before seeing a sniff of anything near profit

any advice much appreciated

thank you for your time


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## AlexArt (Apr 25, 2010)

Profit from farming??!!!
Your best idea is to ring up DEFRA and ask what criteria you need for obtaining a DWA liscence - I do know it is renewable yearly and you have to pay every year for the veterinary inspection - the DWA would be the easy bit!!! 
The animals all need to be registered etc - thanks to DEFRA about a ton of paperwork to trawl through - it's bad enough with sheep and pigs!!, you'd need serious fencing I would have thought around 2m as I have seen them jump over 6ft with ease!, plus they can reach 40 odd miles and hour so do need space!! You'd need to have land attached to your house - would be the safest thing so people don't knick/harm/let out your animals, with these sorts of animals being onsite is a must nowadays - there is very strict criteria for the DWA and you have to prove you are qualified to keep them. 

A quarter on an acre is no way near enough to keep these birds, I keep my chooks on a plot bigger than that and they keep on top of the grass pretty well and ostriches are grazers so would turn that into mud soup in 5 seconds flat!! - I would say a good 8 acre plot for a small flock so they can really have a good run about and behave as naturally as possible and alows your pasture to not get too worn out, also enough to be able to rotate your grazing as that forms a large part of their diet. 
Don't forget you need to maintain the land - so rolling/harrowing/fertilising/weedkilling/topping/fencing etc etc eats into profits if you don't have your own kit - an old tractor would do the trick otherwise you need a contractor which are pretty pricey - just to get one of my fields, around 8 acres, just rolled is about £140. 
You also need facilities to breed them - so a small barn or 2 would be needed as the weather here is crap so chicks need shelter and heat if you are raising lots. They are also really good at eating stupid things then dying - a friend of mine is a zookeeper and they lost an ostrich after it ate an orange whole - they will swallow anything they can pick up, they'll also eat litter etc so daily pasture checks are needed!! 

You need a race to handle them, on site slaughter facilities and a butchering shed/kitchen type set up, upto DEFRA standards, along with storage facilities ie. a freezer, also food hygenie qualifications, or find a local butcher that you can hire out for a day to deal with them as I doubt many abbatoirs deal with them - that would eat up most of your profit so best to do a course yourself in the long run. I can't imagine how long it takes to pluck an ostrich though, it takes me a good bit to do a turkey!!! - a plucker maybe an idea if you're doing a few!!

You also need to find your market so check for other ostrich farms in your area and see if there is a demand, or maybe ostrich burgers or something from a stand at farmers markets maybe more profitable per animal if you are only raising a few? - alot of ostrich meat is imported far cheaper than rearing it here due to the high cost of feed now, animals that need large amounts of processed feed like these and pigs for example are not making any money at all at the mo unless you do it on a very large scale - my local ostrich farm has just closed as I don't think they were making any money and they were open to the pubic too so you'd need an awful lot of them to make any money at all, or even just covering your labour costs.

They can also be highly agressive, especially the males in the breeding season - I've dealt with them in the wild and they can be very nasty indeed - one kick can disembowel a lion so they need alot of respect when handling them not to mention insurance!! 

So I would recommend going to a few ostrich farms and having a chat with the owners and learn how to look after them, might be the better way of getting to know the industry too, before buying a bunch of birds that live as long as a human that you're then stuck with if things don't turn out, not to mention forking out 10's of thousands in facilities!!


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## skinnyjoe313 (Aug 6, 2011)

Thanks for the reply 

i emailed the British Domesticated Ostrich Association and they gave my details to a retired ostrich farmer in my area.

So im hoping i can have a chat with them and see if its viable.

cheers


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## Acrophylla (Apr 16, 2008)

Hi
Did you know that the EU is proposing to stop people keeping non-British creatures? You might like to join the campaign to stop this crazy proposal going through because ostriches are not British.


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