Organic farming is a completely unique type of farming, to learn how to raise ostrich requires a lot of experience, care, and time. If you invest just the right money, you can get almost a 100% return on your money. According to data, ostriches produce meat and consume feed in such a ratio that it becomes more profitable than beef cattle. It may be difficult to learn how to start an ostrich farm, but with the right planning, care and investment, it can be turned into a successful business operation. The best part about an ostrich farm layout is that it requires a small area of land and can be a source of profit in more than one way. You can sell:
- Meat (ostriches can provide more meat than a single hen, their meat is also considered healthiest out of all)
- Hide (ostrich hide is used by multiple shoes and bags manufacturers)
- Eggs (Ostrich eggs are incredibly high in nutrition)
- Feathers (feathers are also used by manufacturers to provide a smoother texture)
The first step in learning how to start an ostrich farm is to find a piece of land that can be converted into an ostrich farm. Follow the guide on how to raise ostrich step by step to understand how to build a profitable business.
Blue Mountain Feed has an excellent article on Ostrich farming industry and associated needs.
What Are The Pros & Cons of Ostrich Farming?
While ostrich farming has been a business model for decades, the reason not a lot of people choose ostrich farming as a career option is because they don’t understand the benefits. Recently the ostrich farming industry has boomed, so if you’re planning a new business, the time is right now. Ostriches are 20-30% harder to find in comparison with other animals, this is why ostrich farmers make much more profit than others. Here are all the pros and cons of starting an ostrich farm:
Pros of Ostrich Farming:
- Higher profitability than other animal farms. A single ostrich egg can be sold for up to $500. If you can do even 10-20 in a month, you can earn a hefty profit on your investments. If you want you can even sell a live ostrich, a live ostrich can be sold for up to $5,000 based on health, and other factors.
- Higher than ordinary ROI is another benefit of ostrich farming. You can recover the money you have invested into the farm faster in comparison to pig or cattle farming. An ostrich can lay up to 40 eggs in a year and the chicks can grow up to selling age in 14 months.
- Ostriches produce even more meat than cows. A single healthy, a fully grown ostrich can produce up to 1,800 KGs of meat while a fully grown cow produces meat up to 300 KGs.
- Ostriches produce up to 50 square meters of leathers that can be sold for profit other than meat.
- A common misconception is that ostriches require a lot of care for the profit they offer. Ostrich breeding is as lucrative as it is profitable.
Cons of Ostrich Farming:
- The number of competitors is rising as more and more people enter the industry. More competitors mean a smaller customer base.
- The price of ostriches is increasing which means it can become harder to find the ideal price point for your customers.
- Ostriches are harder to find in comparison to other animals like cock, hen, pigs, cows, etc. Starting an ostrich farming business can take a lot of time and effort.
What Tools Do You Need to Start Ostrich Farming?
No business can survive without the right set of tools and equipment. Using the right set of tools can help you grow your business out of nothing. Here are the most common tools that you require to start an ostrich farm business:
- A trailer is a necessary investment when you’re working with live animals. As your farm will be acres wide, you won’t need to rent a trailer every time you wish to move the ostriches from one place to another.
- A coral system is required to keep all the ostriches in one place when you need them to stay in one place. Apart from your ostrich farm layout, you can place this small enclosure in a field where you want your animals to stay.
- A manure spreader is another tool required to keep your ostriches healthy. Animals generate a lot of manure, a manure spreader can help in distributing the manure effectively which is hygienic and reduces the risk of diseases.
- A feed mixer is a must-have tool if you want to keep your ostriches healthy. You will also need a certain amount of water tanks to feed the ostriches.
What are The Basic Startup Costs of Ostrich Farming?
Starting an ostrich farm can sound like an expensive ordeal but usually, the costs are more than manageable. Starting an ostrich farm is tough, but with the right kind of investment, you can turn it into a profitable business. The first step includes figuring out how much an ostrich cost?
An ostrich costs around $500 between the ages of 60-90 days, the price doubles if the ostrich crosses the 90 days mark. A year-old ostrich costs around $2,500 which can be a really expensive investment. Your major expense will be the purchase of ostriches, other basic set-up costs of ostrich farm is:
- The documentation including state licenses, business licenses can cost somewhere $100 – $400.
- Renting a farm based on location can cost $300 – $800.
- Basic equipment cost can reach up to $1,000.
- If you have staff then the staff salary is another major experience.
- Expenditure for chicks feed can average $800 – $1500 per month.
- You may have to spend $300 – $500 on local advertising.
Now that you know how much an ostrich costs, you can decide based on your budget how many ostriches you need on your farm. You need at least 2 male and 2 female ostriches to start a healthy farm. The total cost of an ostrich farm in Texas is around $2,500 – 3,300.
The cost breakdown mentioned above can differ greatly based on the ostrich farm layout, and if you have a staff helping you on the farm or not. If you have a huge backyard or spare land then you can get rid of costs associated with the land. How much you need to spend as capital greatly depends on different aspects.
What do You Need to Know Before Start Ostrich Farming?
How to raise an ostrich should be the first question you should ask yourself before blindly stepping into the industry. It is not easy to learn how to start an ostrich farm, but there are some things that you need to know before starting an ostrich farm.
- Determine which ostrich products you want to sell to earn profit from the ostrich farm. If you don’t wish to kill the bird, you can just sell the eggs and feathers.
- Ostriches require between one and three acres of land to run freely and remain healthy. You will need to build a basic shelter to protect the birds from environmental changes.
- You have to provide them with a good supply of food and water. To keep them healthy, fresh water and feed are required every day.
- Decide what kind of ostrich you wish to raise, there are several species you can try. If you’re building an ostrich farm for the first time, then the African black ostrich is the right choice.
- The last thing you need to know is that you should purchase ostriches for your farm and choose from unhatched eggs as they cost the least. The less cost you invest, the more profits you can generate.
How Do You Prepare to Launch Ostrich Farming?
Want to learn how to start an ostrich farm, then you have to make all the preparations for launching the business and turning it into a profitable venture. The formal setup will require acres of land for the ostriches to run and grow healthy as they age. There are a few steps to follow for launching an ostrich farm.
Choosing a Business Name:
The right business name can help you gather new customers and help the customers understand what your business has to offer. Your business name has to be catchy and should be easy to remember. You also need to consider if the name you’ve chosen is similar to any other business. Once you decide on a catchy business name, you will have to go through the legalities of getting that name registered with the government.
Niche Selection
Choosing the niche you want to do expertise in makes all the difference. The right niche of ostrich farming can increase the amount of profit you can earn from the business. You can start by doing everything, but over time going into a particular niche will help to build a name for your business. Here are some different types of ostrich farming:
- Arabian ostrich farming (also known as Middle Eastern Ostriches)
- Black-necked ostrich farming (Southern or Cape ostrich)
- Blue Necked ostrich farming
- Masai Ostrich farming
- Red-necked ostrich farming
Building a Skillset
You need to learn how to start an ostrich farm and how to raise ostrich before you go into investing a huge sum of money for your own farm. It’s obvious that no one’s born with all kinds of skills, you will have to learn every minor detail of ostrich farming. To acquire the right skills, you can volunteer to work part-time or full-time on an ostrich farm close to you. You may also choose to work on any ordinary cattle farm or ranch to get used to routine and understanding of animals needs in general.
Once you understand how to raise ostrich and how the industry works, you can start your own business.
All Set to Launch Ostrich Farming?
Now that you’ve made all the preparations necessary to start an ostrich farm, are you actually ready to start a full-fledged business? You will need to determine whether or not you need a formal business office? You need to determine the cost down to every single penny and then arrange the funds from your friends or family or get a loan from a local bank.
If you are hiring help for managing the ostrich farm, then your cost for salaries will increase. Apart from start-up capital, you will also need to have enough working capital to keep your business afloat for at least 3-6 months. Most businesses don’t start generating revenue till the first few months of the business.
You also need to determine a price point and sales funnel for the products you are selling. Your products need to be cheaper than your competitors but not so cheap that you can’t generate enough profits to keep your business afloat. Also, cheap products cause customers to lose faith in your product quality. Once you manage all these factors, you are all set to start your ostrich farm.
Problems You Could Face In Ostrich Farming Business
Learning how to start an ostrich farm can be a tricky process. It can take a lot of time to build a profitable business out of ostrich farming. If you choose to get unhatched eggs, then you will have to wait for months till they become egg laying heath or of slaughter age. Till then you will have to manage expenses of food, shelter, equipment, and staff salaries.
While ostrich farming is a very expensive business in starting, once the time comes, it generates huge amounts of profits. The more you invest upfront, the more profit you will generate. This whole process takes time and the profits are generated only after a certain period. You just need to find appropriate markets for selling the ostrich eggs, feathers, or meat at a price that helps you generate enough profit.
Learning how to start an ostrich farm and generating a profitable business out of that may be challenging but it is extremely rewarding in the end. If everything is handled properly, you can generate more profit than you initially expected. The more profit you generate, the more you can invest back into the business.
Conclusion: How To Start Ostrich Farming?
In the end, it’s all about how much revenue a business can generate. While ostrich farming requires a huge initial investment but it can offer incredible profits if things are handled ideally. You can try new methods and techniques for a smoother and faster ostrich farming process. If you find a solution that can improve your process, you can increase your profits even further.
Follow our step-by-step guide on how to raise an ostrich. Start by building a business plan, figure out your market, buy the right kind of equipment and arrange the funds that are required to start the business, and keep it going for a few months. If you think you can’t manage all ostrich farming niches at the same time, then you can choose to specialize in a single niche for additional profits.
FAQs:
How much profit can be generated with Ostrich farming?
It all depends on your initial investment, but you can easily get a 100% on your investment. You can generate an incredible amount of profit, while the actual number can’t be determined, you’ll get more profit than you invest.
What are the major benefits of ostrich farming?
Ostrich farming comes with a lot of benefits as it is a profitable business venture. The most noticeable features of ostrich farming are:
- Much higher profitability ratio than other types of cattle farming, which leads to more revenue.
- Ostriches produce more meat and ostrich meat sells for a higher amount in comparison to cow meat.
- Ostriches can produce a lot of leather which can be sold to manufacturers.