World Ostrich Association Newsletter No. 85
April, 2010

Included in this edition:
South Africa – Grahamstown Abattoirs Shut Down by water shortage
Now it’s CowGate
University of Alberta Videos
Innovative new designs in production

South Africa – Grahamstown Abattoirs Shut Down by Water Shortage

A report from Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa, reported severe water shortages.   This was a combination of drought conditions reducing levels in the dams and poor management of the pumping system used to provide water from other sources.  The situation is devastating for all industry as well as residents. 

Grahamstown is the home of a major ostrich abattoir, meat cutting plants and tanneries.   At the time of this report, entitled Dire Outlook for Ostrich Industry, reported the closure of the abattoir for a week in the hope the water pumps will be put into operation. 

The position became so serious that birds that had been shipped to the abattoir long distances for slaughter had to be returned with many more birds scheduled for slaughter during the week.  This must be a dreadful position for all involved to be in.  At its most serious the supply to their markets is disrupted.  Birds not able to be removed from the farm require feeding and disturb the bird flow through the farm.  

Newsletter 74 reported on the new empowerment ostrich project last year, their processing plant IMPEC and their tannery are also based in Grahamstown.

All of us can hope that the situation is rectified very quickly for all involved.  The situation illustrates how any business is dependent on strong and reliable infrastructure in the supply of services to our business.

Now it’s CowGate
And More Evidence of Poor Science and Climate Change

Following the release of the Climategate emails, a number of excellent documents and reports have been published during this month. 

The Science & Public Policy Institute has published a number of documents on the subject of climate change during the course of this month and earlier.  These can be accessed from their web site. 

Their web site also has a blog, with the most recent (26th March, 2010) under the title:

This link provides a link to the testimony of Dr. Phil Jones to the British House of Commons.  It is in 4 parts.   The SPPI web site contains an excellent analysis of the Climategate emails and can be read here as a pdf file or here in html.

University of Alberta Videos

The University of Alberta have made available some interesting videos for the poultry industry.    One set is on Biosecurity and the other set are on basic production including incubation and hatching.  Whilst these are focusing on high production poultry producers, they do have some principles that successful ostrich producers need to adopt.  They also provide an indication of scale of operations and the challenges we have with ostrich to develop to this scale of production.

The videos are available on line through You Tube in low resolution and to purchase in better quality in high resolution.

Incubation and Hatchery – Part 1
Incubation and Hatchery – Part 2

Principles of Biosecurity Chapter 1A
Principles of Biosecurity Chapter 1B
Biosecurity A New Mentality Chapter 2
3 Ways to Improve Your Biosecurity Chapter 3

Innovative new designs in livestock production
Whilst man made climate change is clearly proven as a scam and non event – making better uses of our resources is always important as is improving the welfare of the animals we raise for human consumption.  It is interesting to see two innovative new designs and in one case, integration of different agricultural disciplines. 

Case 1 – Sustainable Pig Farming
Nee Rentz-Petersen designed an integrated pig production unit and tomato growing as his doctorate project...Pig City.  This is going ahead in Denmark.    The plan uses pigs to grow tomatoes with biogas.

Figure 1- Diagram to illustrate the concept [source: thepigsite.com]

The first Pig City project will not only integrate pig housing with the final slaughterhouse as well as using the waste products to heat and power the building and a massive glasshouse growing tomatoes was one of the winning designs in a competition run by the Danish financial institution, Realdania.

The futuristic two-storey building, has pigs on the ground floor and tomatoes growing above, is about to become a reality in Denmark.   The first project will house 20,000 finishers and grow 1,100 tonnes of tomatoes.

The following are artist impressions:

Figure 2 - Artists impressions of Pig City [Source: Nee Renee-Petersen Architect, Gottlieb Paludan Architects]

Full reports can be viewed at Pig International, The Pig Site and Pig Progress.

Case 2 – The Public, Farmers and Hens
This project developed in The Netherlands attempts to bring together an efficient system to combine welfare that meets consumer concerns enables efficiencies in systems and allows the consumer to observe.

According to the company, the concept was the outcome of a study by Wageningen University which set out to explore options for a sustainable future for laying hen husbandry, studying the areas of conflict between corporate social responsibility, the needs of the laying hen and an optimum working environment for the poultry farmer.  The technology was then developed on this basis.

The Rondeel consists of four key components:
- Night quarters
- Day quarters
- Wooded fringe
- Central core

The marketing blurb states the system includes two technical innovations:

   1. Natural ventilation: the climate is controlled with completely natural ventilation.
   2. Manure drying system.

Figure 3 - Rondeel Poultry Production system

The Central Core is made up of three parts:

1. The Ground floor allows work space for the poultry farmer
2. The First floor allows space for visitors, schools etc. to view and walk between the hens in one of the Day Quarters through a marketing corridor made entirely of glass that enables clear viewing space, but yet ensures no comprise in biosecurity
3. The Second floor houses two heat exchangers which are used for climate control in the system and for pre-and re-drying the manure

Conclusion:
These developments indicate the power of consumers in their wish to see better animal welfare producing the food they require combined with the need to optimise resources whilst still achieving economies of scale.

Of course, our industry has to first establish volume production before we can start on any of these types of initiatives.

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