Emus and Ostriches

Michael Trotter

When we set up the Rare Breeds Website in 2002 we did not include Emus or Ostriches because they weren’t in the least bit rare at that time. Some years earlier when I was an archaeologist studying moa remains I visited an emu farm not far from Christchurch to observe some of their living ratite relatives. And when we wanted to make replicas of extinct moas for display at the Canterbury Museum we had no difficulty in getting enough emu feathers to cover full-sized models (as in this photograph) of a species of moa that had been commonly hunted in earlier centuries. I even fed my dogs on emu meat for a while, though as it hadn’t been butchered for human consumption I didn’t eat any myself.

More recently, however, a new member to the Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand asked to be listed on the breeders’ directory of our website as a breeder of emus – and it brought to mind that I hadn’t seen any emu farms in Canterbury or even the occasional live emu for some years. It was time to do some research.

Emus were being imported into New Zealand from Australia as early as the late 1850s, though these were mostly just as novelty items rather than for any serious purpose, and some of our local acclimatisation societies got into the act in subsequent decades, importing numerous species without much consideration for the consequences. Sir George Grey, one time Governor of New Zealand, is credited with being the only person to seriously attempt acclimatising emus in New Zealand. Between 1862 and 1888 he spent a fortune developing Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf, 45 kilometres north of Auckland, planting hundreds of different plant species and introducing a wide range of exotic animals on the 5,000 acre (20 square kilometre) island. But the legacy he might have left came to nothing with most of his importations becoming considered as pests.

According to an article in the Christchurch Press, the first commercial emu farm was not set up until 1986 when a Taranaki farmer intended to produce emu leather, meat, oil, eggs and souvenirs.

Commercial ostrich farming started more than a century earlier. John Thomas Matson obtained his founding birds from South Africa in 1883 and ran them on his property in Papanui Road, Christchurch. The principal purpose of the farm was the production of feathers which were harvested by cutting them off about an inch from the ostrich’s skin – the remaining bits were left to dry up and were then removed with tweezers.

In spite of an initial setback when some fifty eggs were spoiled because of a faulty incubator which was heated by a gas stove, two thousand feathers were exported to England in September 1886. Some of these were selected to form fans for presentation to the Queen and Princess of Wales – which were duly acknowledged – while others, comprising long feathers, aigrettes (ornamental head-dresses), and tips, were made up for sale. Mr Matson estimated that even should he get no higher price than two shillings for each of the twenty-five white feathers upon each wing, ostrich farming would yield a good profit.

However by late 1893 the birds required more time and attention than Matson was able to devote to them and the ostriches were taken over by the Canterbury Ostrich Farming Company and shifted to a new location in Burwood (northern Christchurch). Without Matson’s enthusiastic promotion the venture was not successful – Matson died in April 1895 after a long illness – and the remaining 18 ostriches were offered for sale in 1897.

By this time however other ostrich farms had been established elsewhere in New Zealand, notably one in the Auckland area (photograph on the right) which started with 47 ostriches in 1887.

The use of ostrich feathers in women’s clothing or as a fashion accessory was greatest towards the end of the nineteenth century and during the early decades of the twentieth. Feathers were used to adorn fashionable women’s hats – often large and elaborate – and were used for boas (stoles), and fans. The use of ostrich feathers is said to have become a symbol of wealth and luxury in Victorian and Edwardian fashion.

The illustration on the left appeared in women’s and fashion columns in a number of New Zealand newspapers in 1925 with the caption: “A white georgette dance frock looks lovely with three sloping flounces of white ostrich feathers; the flounces give the correct swing to the skirt, while retaining the slim proportions of the straight bodice.”

My own Trotter grandparents had a few ostriches on their sheep and cattle farm in North Otago about this time but I think these were more for display in a roadside paddock rather than as income earners.

Worldwide, however, fashions were changing, and the popularity of ostrich feathers declined from around the time of the First World War to the extent that ostrich farming for feathers soon became unviable as a New Zealand industry.

During the second half of the twentieth century South Africa, which had always been the main ostrich farming country, began diversifying into the production of ostrich meat and hides in addition to feathers. There was also an increasing demand for feather dusters for both in the home and in industry.

In the late 1980s there was a global resurgence in ostrich farming spurred by increasing demand for ostrich skins and meat, and ostrich farms were soon established in numerous countries throughout the world.

New Zealand was a latecomer to the revived ostrich industry, due mainly to our strict regulations in respect to the importation of the birds or their eggs to prevent the introduction of avian diseases. There were very few ostriches left from the early introductions into New Zealand by this time. In 1994 the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries permitted ostrich eggs to be imported from Australia and in 1995 live birds could be imported from the United Kingdom. Later live birds also came from Australia and Canada.

The New Zealand Ostrich Association was established in January 1994 with main aim of assisting the growth, development and promotion of the ostrich industry in New Zealand and in providing support to its members. It soon had ten branches throughout the country, and in an informative brochure ostrich farming in New Zealand was referred to as a growth industry producing offspring with each hen hatching over twenty chicks a year as well as:

• meat that had the best features of both red and white meat,
• leather with up to 14 square feet of prestige leather per hide,
• small goods including biltong, jerky, biersticks, and liverwurst,
• feathers for both decorative and practical purposes,
• oil for the cosmetic industry and as a treatment for dry skin,
• eggs, each the equivalent of two dozen poultry eggs.

In 1999 John Luxton, who was minister for Food, Fibre, Biosecurity and Border Control, launched the “Ostrich and Emu Processing Standard” designed primarily to ensure the safe production of ostrich and emu meat for human consumption. He said that ten years earlier a Manawatu farmer, Murray Goss (1995 photograph on the left), started out with one pair of emus – implying their rarity – but now in 1999 the national flock totalled 15,000 emus spread over 150 farms.

Luxton also said that in 1994 the only ostriches in New Zealand, were the five zoo animals at Orana Wildlife Park just outside Christchurch, but five years later the national flock was of 20,000 birds on 520 ostrich farms. Interestingly, a source from within the Ostrich industry gave even higher figures for 1999.

By the year 2000 there was a domestic market for ostrich meat of about a hundred tonnes annually, and exporting of the meat had started, initially to Europe and later to Asia.

However, the global boom in ostrich and emu farming did not last. Different reasons have been given for the decline but in general it was probably due largely to an overestimated demand for the products, inadequate knowledge of farming them, and lack of institutional support.

In 2022 an Agricultural Production Survey carried out by Statistics New Zealand indicated that the total number of emus and ostriches combined was only 289 for the whole of New Zealand, 80% of which were in the Manawatu-Whanganui region. This was vastly different from the numbers given by Luxton in 1999.

Rosemary and Ian Blunden have been farming ostriches in the Manawatu region of the North Island since 1993. They bought their first breeding pair as a diversification from sheep and beef, and during the boom period increased them to around 300 birds.

The hen ostriches start laying eggs when they are about two years old and will lay every second day when the weather is fine during the spring months. Usually the eggs are collected and placed in an incubator for 42 days, and the young chicks are kept under cover for eight weeks when they are moved into paddocks where shelter is still available.

The ostriches feed on pasture with supplementary pellets and after about a year reach a live weight of around a hundred kilograms. When killed they yield 27 to 30 kilograms of meat per bird.

The natural lifespan of ostriches is up to 60 years with a breeding life of 40 years. The ostrich hen matures at 20 to 24 months old and can produce up to 40 eggs in a laying season.

Today, in 2025, the Blundens are one of the very few people still farming the big birds commercially in New Zealand. They sell vacuum packed ostrich meat directly to the public and to some top-end restaurants, and they also have skins, feathers and blown eggs available, and sell young birds to zoos, farm parks, and lifestyle block owners.

Further south in the lower North Island of New Zealand Sandy and Terry Cooper began to farm emus on their 17 acre Bluebank Blueberry and Emu Farm in the Akatarawa Valley 40 kilometres north of Wellington. In the 1990s emus were imported from Canada, and some breeding stock was also sourced from zoos in New Zealand. Massey University worked with owners to do research on farming the birds, breeding and feeding. Sandy and Terry initially bought two pairs of emus then four more pairs a year or so later, ultimately running about two hundred emus. Sandy told me that the females lay an egg every three days from around April till September, and the male waits for a few to be laid then sits on them for 52 days. If the eggs are removed the female tends to keep laying – one female laid 38 eggs during the season.

At Bluebank the eggs were usually hatched in an incubator rather than letting the males hatch them and the chicks kept in a shed under heat lamps until they were ready to go outside.

At first they bred them for the buoyant breeder market; then when that ran its course in the early 2000s they raised them for meat. A small works in Greytown processed birds for the Wellington area and meat was being sold in their farm shop and in the local butchers. Emu oil was sought after for skin care products and emu eggs could be eaten or carved, feathers could be used for Maori cloaks, the claws for jewellery, the bones for carving, and the hides made great leather for clothing. Emus reach a weight for processing by about 14 months. Emu meat is a red meat, a cross between venison and a good fillet steak in taste. Low in fat, it is a healthy meat to eat. Emu burgers were a big hit with parents for their children.

All was going well until processing regulations were changed and the works that processed the meat couldn’t afford to upgrade to the new rules. It killed the industry overnight. The Coopers tried since to find other processing plants but just met with brick walls, endless regulations and a lot of expense. The replica moas in the Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa) have feathers from the Coopers’ emus.

Amongst relative newcomers to having emus is Danielle Lane of Tree Range Farms in Central Otago. She obtained a male and female adult pair from a farm in Fairlie. The male (who had been hand raised) is very friendly, likes his neck scratched, and will eat from your hand; the female is curious but prefers to keep a bit more distant.

Last year Danielle bought some eggs from a North Island breeder and hatched four of them by incubator. The chicks formed a bond with her toddler son and followed him around the paddock. Danielle is getting DNA analyses done to determine the chicks’ sex. They are growing rapidly – see the photograph below – and Danielle is planning to breed from them once they are old enough.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due particularly to Danielle Lane and Sandy Cooper who gave me information from their personal experience and photographs of their emus. Thanks also to Sharpes Farm Feeds and to Rosemary and Ian Blunden for ostrich information and photographs, and to Geoff Trotter for the photograph of the replica moa and his help with others. Most of the historical information came from newspaper items available through the invaluable Papers Past website operated by the National Library of New Zealand. The Auckland Libraries, the National Library of New Zealand, the Manawatu Standard, and the Mahara Upper Hutt Community Archive gave permission to use photographs as acknowledged in the captions. University theses by Lileko Lishomwa and Suzanne Bassett were very useful, as was a report by Anne Munro together with several studies of emu and ostrich farming in New Zealand that were published in scientific journals and elsewhere.