My family attended an ostrich auction in Texas and came home in 1987 with a pair of ostriches. Originally, the ostriches were going to be more of a hobby rather than business. I remember getting a call from my mother telling me of the new additions to the ranch. I was stunned; I thought what were my parents thinking! Well, those ostriches did very well on the ranch and soon they had more company.
It turned out that the ostrich business was a very lucrative business. Each fertile egg had a market value of $1,000. Each ostrich appreciated in value by a $1,000 each month. So a 12-month old bird could sell for $12,000. At the height of the ostrich business a proven breeding pair of birds sold for about $40,000.
We got involved with the American Ostrich Association and became a sought after resource on the West Coast for farmers looking to enter the ostrich business. The ostrich hobby had become a nice little business.
As we added more birds to the ranch the ostrich population exploded over the years and we became one the largest ostrich ranches in Northern California. At the height of the business we had around 800 birds.
The ostrich industry evolved from a breeding business to a product business. Leather, feathers, and meat are the main products of an ostrich. The Silver Oaks Ranch evolved with the times and became one of the leading purveyors of organic, free range ostrich meat. We sold to specialty markets and the top-tier restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In the year 2000 we decided to close up the ostrich business. Today we have less than 20 birds on the property. Those birds have the auspicious job of keeping the grass down.
Today the ostriches are kept company by miniature donkeys, a small herd of Belted Galloway cattle, and a couple of Percheron Horses. Our newest edition to the ranch is a pair of dromedary camels who are colorful characters who never fail to vocalize their love of carrots.
