Missouri farmer finds niche raising ostriches near St. Joseph

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- While most Missouri farmers stick to traditional livestock, one farmer took a different approach by raising ostriches, the world’s largest birds.

Franklin Voorhes' farm, outside of St. Joseph, is home to ostriches. He raises both breeding and meat-producing ostriches on his farm.

Voorhes decided to add ostriches on his farm so he could have a competitive advantage.

"Ostriches were unusual enough, that I thought I could actually be competitive in that market," he said.

In addition to farming, Voorhes is an engineer. He researched a dozen Midwest cities before starting the farm. His engineering background gave him a backup plan if starting a farm failed.

"This is the first place I tried, found a farm and jumped in with both feet," he said.

Voorhes found caring for ostriches much more challenging than traditional livestock.

"When they're young and when their being incubated its a much more demanding process. Once they get to this age (adults) they are fairly bulletproof," Voorhes said. "I can throw food at them, I can throw water at them and not have to worry about them. Until they are about three months old, it's fairly demanding to keep them healthy and alive."

One of the ostriches on Voorhes' farm was his best friend until the bird reached puberty and its behavior changed.

"He decided he didn't like me anymore," Voorhes said. "He can jump about four feet, and that surprised me a lot. I had no idea an ostrich could jump that high. He got mad at me one day and decided to jump at me and, he gets your attention when he jumps at you like that."

Voorhes's ostriches can produced 85 to 90 pounds of red meat.

"It's not like chicken, it's not like turkey at all," Voorhes said. "This is red beef, the whole bird consists of either roasts like chuck and brisket or steaks very similar to a fillet or a trimmed Kansas City strip. It's very lean.

Ostrich meat is a safe option for people with Alpha-gal syndrome to consume.

"That is where the growth market is right now because something like 70% of the patients with that disease in the United States are in southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas. This is region that makes sense to be growing a food that those that have Alpha-gal syndrome can eat," he said.

In addition to raising ostriches, Voorhes makes soap and skincare products using ostrich oil.

"That's kind of a niche market, but some folks like beef tallow and is kind of in fashion in a lot of cosmetic worlds right now," Voorhes said. "If you have Apha syndrome you can't use that. Having an ostrich based oil product has some demand."

Raising ostriches give Voorhes the chance to be a mad-scientist and come into work the next day.

"With ostrich, there's not that much known about it," Voorhes said. "I wound up mixing my own feed. I wound up managing their vitamins. I've done a lot work managing their amino-acid profile. That's all a little bit of science I have to do on my own.

Ostriches can live an average lifespan of 50 years with some even reaching up to 70 years.