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Farm plan
You will need an individual farm plan for your new enterprise. When drawing up your plan, consult information about stocking densities, facility requirements and any legal requirements or codes of practice. Visits to other emu farms can give you a variety of ideas.
If you are going to breed emus and conduct intensive rearing, you will need to provide egg handling, storage, incubation and hatching facilities as well as a brooder house for chicks and rearing pens for young birds.
If breeding and rearing free-range emus you will need extra pens to allow females to be removed while the male is sitting on the eggs. This will also keep broody males isolated from other birds. Interference by other emus can result in egg damage and chick loss. Under free-range systems, additional pens may be required so that the chicks remain isolated from other older birds.
Aspects of husbandry and production
Emu production cycle
Feeding
A special diet similar to poultry feed specifications, supplemented with farm-grown lucerne and other pasture, is fed at each of the different stages of growth.
Health and disease
Emus contract similar diseases to poultry and emu chicks up the the age of three months have a mortality rate of 7-12%. There is little information at this time on specific emu diseases.
Emu products
Emu products include: meat, wet-salted skins, oil and eggs for carving.
Established markets for these products have not been developed. The market for feathers, eggs and live emus is inconsistent and cannot be depended on.
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Emus - starting an emu farm
If you are wanting to farm emus you need to:
- learn about emu production and management
- Prepare a budget and business plan for your emu farm operation - consider factors that could affect production and management
- Consider visiting at least our emu farms and any other emu farms for information about farming practices.
About Emu's
Emus begin breeding at about 20-24 months. Young adults and other unpaired adults should be run in groups in large pens allowing each emu to choose its own mate thus forming compatible pairs; this increases egg fertility. (Selective pairing will begin to take place from December/January each year.) If each pen has only one pair of emus, they may be incompatible and poor matings will result, so decreasing egg fertility and possible bird injury.
When pairs form, they can then be separated into individual breeding pens. If the pair performs well, they can be left as a pair or, if you wish to split them, they can be put into the large group pen after the breeding season has finished.
Alternatively, breeding emus can be left as a group in a large pen and not segregated into individual breeding pens. If this option is chosen it is important to give them sufficient space to avoid fighting and to sex the birds so that the male:female sex ratio is about equal.
Hens will begin to lay from mid to late April each year, and most females will have finished laying by October/November.
Most adults are not physically aggressive to farm personnel when they are collecting the eggs. The few that get 'too close for comfort' can be bluffed by facing them and holding up an arm or other object to make you taller than the bird. Walking towards them will usually make them turn away.
However, as a basic safety rule, do not stand in front of an emu within range of its feet; keep at least 1 m away. Emus kick and strike forwards if they feel threatened or are caught but can't kick sideways or backwards. The beak can pinch but generally causes little damage. Keep an eye on the feet.
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