The nugget., January 10, 2018, Page 16, Image 16

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Wednesday, January 10, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Redmond farm breeding ostriches to sell their meat
By Macy Crowe
The Bulletin
BEND (AP) — The eight-
foot-tall ostrich named Blue
stuck his head over the fence
at Central Oregon Ostrich.
As he looked down, his dino-
saur-like feet sunk into the
dirt. When the flightless bird
walked to the other side of
the fence, his wide, feathered
body swung back and forth
with every step. Ostriches
look prehistoric and are the
largest living birds in the
world.
Michael and Danielle
Lehman are the owners of
Central Oregon Ostrich, a
farm in Redmond where the
exotic bird is bred for its
meat.
“One summer we went to
all the farmers markets and
tried various meats and prod-
ucts, and Michael decided
that we were going to raise
some ostrich,” Danielle said.
The Lehmans started
Central Oregon Ostrich about
10 years ago, and it is one of
only two ostrich farms in the
Pacific Northwest. The sec-
ond is in Idaho.
After years of research
and trial-and-error learning,
the Lehmans have found a
method to grow and maintain
an ostrich farm. They primar-
ily sell ostrich meat to Nicky
USA, a wholesale butcher of
specialty meats in Portland.
They also sell ostrich meat at
Central Oregon Locavore in
Bend.
“The ostrich is awesome
because it’s so unique; it’s
such a different product,”
said Nicolle Timm-Branch,
founder and president of
Central Oregon Locavore.
“A lot of people don’t know
about it, and it’s delicious.”
Ostrich meat has the tex-
ture of steak with less fat and
more iron. It’s often com-
pared to filet mignon.
Local chefs Ingrid Rohrer,
of Broken Top Bottle Shop,
and Bethlyn Rider, of
Bethlyn’s Global Fusion, have
used Central Oregon Ostrich’s
meat to prepare special dishes
for their customers.
“Whenever I use it, I treat
it exactly like I would beef,”
Rohrer said. In the past, she
has experimented with ostrich
by marinating it and cutting it
like carne asada and also pre-
pared it in a Bolognese sauce.
“One time I boned up two
ostrich legs and did a dry rub
and rolled them and smoked
them,” she said. “I served it
just like smoked roast beef; it
was delicious.”
Ostrich became a popular
meat to eat due to the taste
and consistency.
According to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture,
one cooked 3-ounce serving
of tip-trimmed ostrich meat is
123 calories with 48 percent
of the daily value of protein,
24 percent of the daily value
of cholesterol and 3 percent
of the daily value of total fat.
In comparison, a 3-ounce
tenderloin roast is 276 calo-
ries with 32 percent of the
daily value of total fat, 24
percent of the daily value of
cholesterol and 40 percent of
the daily value of protein.
Ostrich meat had a boom
in the 1980s and 1990s.
“It was going to be the
next big thing in the United
States, and there was a lot of
ostrich in Central Oregon,”
Michael Lehman explained.
During that time, most of the
groundwork for ostrich meat
was laid, and it had been
approved as an edible species
by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
However, the boom was
unsuccessful because farmers
didn’t have enough informa-
tion about the birds to know
how to properly manage them
and keep them alive. The
potential was there for the
meat, but farmers struggled to
deliver on the product.
Eventually, most of the
ostrich farmers gave up.
The Lehmans have been
successful for a number of
reasons.
“What we’ve learned is as
close as you can get to a natu-
ral environment, the more
successful we are,” Michael
Lehman said. “All the way
across the board, from feed to
management.”
Ostrich are native to a
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natural savanna environ-
ment, and the Redmond farm
is very close to their natural
habitat. There they have trees
for cover, a wetland area and
a grassy area. The snow and
cold temperatures are not
unlike parts of a savanna cli-
mate at higher elevations.
The recent push toward
sustainable agriculture and
eating local has also been
a boost for Central Oregon
Ostrich.
“Now, consumers are
willing to pay more for sus-
tainable farming. They’re
willing to pay more for a
really healthy, lean protein
that’s just like beef but not.
Right?” Lehman said. “It
has a real low impact on the
environment.”
Part of what makes ostrich
a sustainable animal to farm is
its low feed-conversion ratio.
“You have an animal that’s
highly efficient at turning
food into meat, and it’s large
enough to be a sustainable,
farmable animal,” Lehman
said.
The feed-conversion ratio
for ostrich is about 4-to-1,
whereas cattle’s feed conver-
sion ratio is closer to 15-to-1.
Also, ostrich require less
acreage than cattle. That’s in
part because they are social
creatures and will cluster
together with their flock, but
also because they produce less
waste and thus generate less
methane. Another sustain-
able working part of Central
Oregon Ostrich’s system is
its food source because spent
brewer’s grain is near perfect
food for ostriches. So, the
ostriches that one would eat
in Central Oregon are feeding
on grains from local brew-
eries, including Deschutes
Brewery, Oblivion Brewery
and Bridge 99 Brewery.
“Per pound of meat,
ostriches require less
resources to grow than other
animals,” Lehman said.
Now, the interest and
demand for ostrich meat is
exceeding the supply. The
Lehmans hope to scale up the
size of their farm and slowly
build up the local market
here.
“In a perfect world, this
farm would be a breeding
and brooding farm,” Michael
Lehman said.
Danielle Lehman, who
is rather attached to the ani-
mals and doesn’t eat the
meat, hopes for the same.
Eventually they would like to
manage the breeders, incubate
the eggs and send the chicks
to another farm.
Michael Lehman said,
“This is an animal that sur-
vived the ice age, so they are
a pretty interesting animal.”
Three Sisters Lions Club
Food
Drive
For Sisters Kiwanis Food Bank
January 8-31
Donate non-perishable food at: Davis Tire & Towing,
Deriʼs Hair Salon, or Washington Federal Bank
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