OSTRICH FARMING ON LUCERNE. 23. 



business before when the farmer felt that with every little wave of 

 dryness his birds suffered and often died, while his clip of feathers 

 was immensely deteriorated. Under adverse conditions cf this 

 kind the industry could not forge ahead, as no farmer was going 

 to invest in expensive ostriches to improve his herd, while he was 

 thus subject to the tender mercies of our fickle seasons. I therefore 

 contend it is to lucerne growing we owe that keen desire and deter- 

 mination amongst farmers to improve their stock at almost any 

 price ; the farmer finding that the better the class cf his birds 

 the tetter is his income from his lucerne. 



Now to ccrric to the L.S.D. In Oudtshoorn we knew it is 

 computed that you can keep 5 ostriches to the acie of lucerne. 

 This calculation is based on grazing the ostriches continually on 

 the luceine. If, instead cf grazing them continually, you graze 

 them for say rwo hours per day, and then remove them to a dry 

 paddock and there feed them on green lucerne cut up, you will find 

 that you ean keep this number cf birds fat during the summer 

 months, and yet spare sufficient lucerne to cut and convert into hay 

 to keep the birds on during the winter months and up to the time 

 that the lucerne again starts growing. So that under favourable 

 conditions and by judicious grazing and cutting, I feel that 5 

 ostriches to the acre is not an extravagant calculation. But yet, 

 gentlemen 1r> ratisfy the most supercilious critic we will reduce 

 the m,mbe] cf ostriches to 3 to the acre. Thus we will be allowing 

 ample maroin IV r the inherent weakness cf our country, instability, 

 which instability a^ain can in tuin be laid at the door of the irre- 

 gularity cf cur rainy cease r_s. However, this is by the way. We 

 all knew that ostriches of no particular pretentious to quality will 

 produce 5 per plucking en luceine. Then again it cannot be 

 denied that gcod ostriches will produce 10 per plucking and 

 more on lucerne. We will therefore again take the medium here 

 and calculate each ostrich to produce 7 IGs. per plucking. 



It is usual when feeding on lucerne to pluck every 8 months 

 (I have done this all my life, and to- day have ostriches of 10 years 

 old still producing feathers which take their place in prize bunches). 

 Plucking every 8 months means \l pluckings per year. This at 

 7 10s. per plucking means 11 5s. per ostrich per year. Calcu- 

 lating the low- rate cf 3 ostriches per acre of lucerne, this gives you 

 a return cf 33 15s. per acre. Put ycur expenses at 3 15s. per 

 acre, this will mean a nett return of 30 per acre of luceine. 

 Gentlemen, this is purely off feathers. 



We now come to the increase in chicks. Where high-c'ass 

 stcck are kept this line gives a big return. One pair, or a set of 

 thue gcod ostriches will produce 750 worth of chicks in the year. 

 This pair or set of ostriches will thrhe en one acre of luceine, and 

 the chicks can te reared up to the age cf selling c n another two 

 acres c f lucerne. Thus fiom tLete three acres of luceine you get a 

 return of say (minus expenses) 700. Now it would be manifestly 

 unfair to calculate the return from your lucerne en this fabulous 



