Ostrich farming first became into being as a result of an expedition to
find ostriches to use their feathers. These wild ostriches were
captured in the East of Africa and moved to S. africa to be
domesticated and farmed. This took place in the early eighteenth
Century.
Farmers discovered by grouping ostriches, they could harvest feathers
more often. The 1st exports of ostrich feathers occurred in 1838 but it
was not until 1863 that ostrich farming has become a reality.
Around the same time, the farming development of producing lucerne
through water sources permitted the needed feed for the farmers. This
enabled a rather dry area such as Oudtshoorn the likelihood of being
self sufficient for ostrich food, and certainly helped the growing of
the livestock farming industry in that place.
Such was the high income from feathers, by 1913 feathers had become the
4th largest revenue earner for South Africa, behind gold, diamond
jewelry and wool. It was from such revenue that the owners built their
impressive homes known as feather palaces, bringing in building
materials and decor from abroad at exuberant costs. Extravagance was
the order of the day as each feather palace tried to outdo its
neighbour in style and elegance.
It was the fashion industry that was the key factor for the development
of the feather market, but since fashions come and go, so did the
desire for the ostrich feather. Hats that embellished ostrich feathers
no much longer became practical. It was impossible to keep such a hat
on a moving car, the new transportation method to emerge during the
20th Century. As the men folks went to war, women also had to take on
the role of manual labor, and practical clothing became a necessity.
Items considered superfluous such as feather hats went out of fashion.
Therefore the great collapse in demand for ostrich feathers led to the
death of the ostrich farming industry.
It had been only after the world wars, that the ostrich raising group
began to look into the ostrich leather market. 1st exporting their
skins to London, UK to get tanned, and then later on, importing the
knowledge to tan themselves, ostrich leather was marketed as a luxury
product. Stuff like handbags were made from ostrich leather using its
distinctive hair foillicle pattern so that it is an unique leather,
easily identifiable and both strong and soft. Fashion houses indexed on
the trend and launched ostrich leather items in their collections as
exclusive items.