LPM 222: Diversified poultry production and current concepts in poultry management and marketing [Livestock Production Management (Regional Interest)] (1+1)

Ostrich rearing systems

REARING SYSTEMS

• In the wild, ostriches are well adapted to the environment in which they have evolved. The process of natural selection favours those that are best adapted to their ecosystem. Farming a particular species by providing them with food and shelter and restricting their movement. Farmed ostriches are dependent on the facilities provided in their shelter and run area.
• As per FAO, there are basically three types of farming systems available for ostrich production: Extensive, Intensive and Semi-intensive. The choice of system to be adapted is essentially governed by availability and price of land, scale of production and labour and feed costs. In the first two systems, there is an additional choice as to whether to use natural or artificial incubation. With intensive systems, artificial incubation and hatching of eggs are always employed.

i) Extensive Farming System

• This type of system requires a large area of land in excess of 40 ha (100 acres). Apart from the cost of the birds (which is common to all systems), land is the major capital requirement. The birds are kept and raised as near as possible to their natural habitat, with minimum interference.
• The main advantage of the extensive farming system is the greatly reduced cost of keeping adult birds in large numbers. Moreover, incubation costs are not incurred if the birds are allowed to hatch their eggs. Thus, production costs are extremely low.
• However the disadvantages can easily outweigh the advantages of this system. Monitoring and identification of the birds and collection of eggs for artificial incubation are difficult. No control over breeding conditions can be exercised. Eggs collected for artificial incubation may be transported over rugged land and this may cause damage to the delicate internal structures of the eggs. Mortality and loss of birds are high, particularly among chicks, because of the high degree of predation. The physical capture of birds become wild due to lack of human contact.

Fig.7.20. Extensive rearing

ii) Semi-intensive Farming System

• The area required for this type of system varies from 20 to 60 ha (50-150 acres). The birds are kept in relatively small paddocks or territories of approximately 8 to 20 ha (20­ - 50 acres). They are able to roam freely to a certain extent, thus obtaining some of their nutritional requirements from the pasture. Supplement feeding (amounting to 40-60 percent of total feeding) is required to ensure that all the birds' nutritional requirements are met. Feeding sites should be located near the perimeter fencing, to increase accessibility and reduce the degree of disturbance caused by frequent entry into the paddocks.
• There are a number of advantages in using the semi-intensive farming system. These include the relative ease in identifying good producing birds and collecting and transporting the eggs (for artificial incubation); savings in feed and fencing costs; and the freedom provided to the birds to choose their mates and hence increase compatibility. However, the physical capture and handling of the birds remain a problem, as is the extreme difficulty in maintaining any accurate breeding records.

Fig. 7.21. Semi-intensive rearing

iii) Intensive Farming System

• The area required for the intensive farming system is normally less than 20 ha (50 acres), divided into small paddocks of 1.2 ha (3-5 acres) each. This system is popular as an ostrich farming system because of the small land area involved. However, there are two clear disadvantages associated with the intensive system.
• First, higher feed costs, as birds need to be provided with all their feed and, second, the higher cost of fencing.
• Capital investment is higher per unit of land area. However, the advantages of using the intensive farming system are numerous and by far outweigh the disadvantages. The major advantage of intensification is that there is full control over breeding, through keeping accurate and precise records of the number of eggs produced by each hen and their fertility and hatchability. These records are invaluable for assessing the eventual value of the stock, whether for resale, retention for breeding, or slaughter. Selective breeding of quality birds can be performed. Furthermore, accurate feed consumption records can be maintained, which enable operators to assess the feed conversion efficiency of the stock.
  

  

  Fig. 7.22. Intenive rearing (note small sized pens)