A Study on Breeding Proportions of Emu

Abstract

In Kazakhstan, over the past decade, farmers’ attention has been directed towards the breeding of ostriches. Just a couple of farms used to breed emus, though mostly for tourist attraction, until few years ago when a research began by Kazakh National Agricultural University in order to assist Governmental program for developing agricultural industry. Today emu farming is still a new and developing part of poultry farming in Kazakhstan. By 2012, emu population in Kazakhstan was about 250 birds, out of which 200 were bred at farms in suburbs of Almaty city. Most of their owners still think of them mainly as pets or tourist attraction and do not pay a special care for their breeding and raising techniques. Most of these emu stocks have inadequate, proportion of males and females. Therefore, an attempt was made to study the effect of different male-female proportions of emu packs during breeding season.